Effects of Mothers’ Self-differentiation on Anxiety, Relationships with Children, and Adaptive Behavior of Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of mothers’ anxiety and their relationships with their children by associating the mothers’ self-differentiation with their children’s adaptive behaviors. The data was gathered from 389 mothers with 3-5-year-old children from eight different childcare centers and kindergartens. Models were analyzed by an analysis of correlation matrix in the AMOS 18.0 software package. The results of this study were as follows; first, mothers self-differentiation including emotional fusion, emotional reaction, emotional hypersensitivity, and emotional cutoff had direct effects on their anxiety, i.e., the higher the levels of emotional fusion, emotional reaction, emotional hypersensitivity, and emotional cutoff in mothers, the more anxious they were. Second, mothers self-differentiation had a direct impact on their positive relationships with their children, i.e., higher the levels of emotional fusion, emotional reaction, emotional hypersensitivity, and emotional cutoff in mothers, the less likely they were to have positive relationships with their children. Third, mothers anxiety had direct effects on positive relationships with their children, i.e., mothers with higher levels of anxiety were less likely to have positive relationships with their children. Fourth, mothers positive relationships with their children had a direct influence on their children s adaptive behavior. Finally, the findings of this research support that the mediating effects on mothers’ anxiety and their relationships with their children due to mothers self-differentiation are associated with their children s adaptive behavior.