Introduction: Separation anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental disorders among children and adolescents, and therefore, considering the prevalence of this disorder in children and its harmful effects on children's growth and performance and preventing its continuation and treatment, research in the field of children and identification of factors Effective on it is very important.
Purpose: The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of mothers' anxiety and thematic relationships in predicting the separation anxiety of elementary school children.
Research implementation method: The research method was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population included all the first grade students of Qom city in 1400, whose number was 23,864 according to the statistics obtained from the Department of Education. The statistical sample consisted of 378 members of the mentioned statistical population who were selected using Cochran's formula and multi-stage cluster sampling method. The instruments used included the Separation Anxiety Scale (Parent and Child Version) by Han et al. (2003), Beck's Anxiety Questionnaire (1990), and Bell's Thematic Relationship Scale (1995). Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression at the same time) were used to analyze the data. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 26 software.
Research results: The results showed that about 13.6% of the variance of children's separation anxiety is predicted by mothers' anxiety and the subscales of mothers' thematic relationships (insecure attachment, alienation, social incompetence and self-centeredness). Mothers' anxiety has a positive and significant relationship with children's separation anxiety.