The Relation between Maternal Psychological Distress and Maternal Caregiving Quality: Marital Satisfaction as a Moderator

Maternal psychological distress, such as depression, anxiety or stress can exert enduring influences on child’s well-being through affecting mother’s caregiving quality. The present research explored the moderating effect of marital dissatisfaction on the relationship between maternal psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) and maternal sensitivity and availability in Iranian mothers. Sample consisted of 189 mothers who had a child aged 2 to 5 years. It was hypothesized that marital dissatisfaction would strengthen the negative relationship between maternal psychological distress and maternal caregiving quality. Participants filled maternal caregiving quality scale, ENRICH marital satisfaction scale and depression, anxiety & stress scales. Multiple indicator multiple cause model and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results show that there is negative correlation between maternal caregiving quality and marital dissatisfaction. There is also negative correlation between maternal sensitivity with stress, anxiety and depression. Moreover, results show that marital dissatisfaction strengthens the negative relationship between maternal psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) and maternal caregiving quality (sensitivity and availability). This implies that when marital dissatisfaction is high, more psychological distress in mothers leads to reduced maternal caregiving quality. On the other hand, a satisfactory marital relationship acts as a buffer against the negative effects of high psychological distress on mother–child relationship and interaction. The study results suggest that in psychological interventions with mothers suffering from depressive, anxiety or stress symptoms, improving marital relationship affects maternal caregiving quality significantly.