Introduction: Mothers with delinquent children with respect to various mental health factors are different from other mothers. The aim of this study was to compare the resilience and quality of life of mothers with delinquent children and mothers with healthy children in Zanjan City, Iran, in 2016.

Methods: In this descriptive-comparative study, 120 mothers (60 mothers with delinquent children and 60 with healthy children) were selected using the convenience and purposive sampling methods. Data were collected by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and short-form health survey (SF-36(. Reliability of the SF-36 health survey was measured by the Cronbach's alpha (0.83) and test retest (0.83). The Cronbach's alpha of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was 0.89. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 21software.

Results: There was a positive correlation between resilience and quality of life (P < 0.001) of mothers with delinquent children and also in mothers with healthy children (P < 0.001). Moreover, the quality of life and resilience of mothers with healthy children was higher than mothers with delinquent children.

Conclusions: This study shows that the quality of life is positively correlated with resilience. Similarly, the quality of life and resilience of mothers with delinquent children is lower than the healthy ones. As such, to enhance the quality of life and the resilience of these mothers, it is recommended to organize training courses for mothers with delinquent children.