Comparison of the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy and acceptance-commitment therapy on mothers' distress tolerance with mentally retarded children

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of emotion-based family therapy and acceptance and commitment-based therapy on mothers' distress tolerance with mentally retarded children.
Methods: The research design was quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test with two experimental groups and control group. From the community of mothers with a mentally retarded child in Tehran in 1399, 39 people were selected as a research sample and randomly placed in three experimental groups 1, 2 and control. Experiment 1 group members received emotion-based family therapy, and experimental group 2 received acceptance and commitment therapy, while control group members did not receive any intervention. Also, all members of the experimental and control groups answered the anxiety tolerance questionnaire in three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Research data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance statistical method.
Results: The results of repeated measures analysis showed that both family therapy approaches based on emotion and acceptance and commitment were effective in improving the anxiety tolerance of mothers with mentally retarded children (p≤0.001). The results of pairwise comparison showed that the emotion-based approach to acceptance and commitment had a greater impact on the tolerance of mothers with distressed children.
Conclusion: In order to improve the anxiety tolerance of mothers with mentally retarded children, both emotion-based therapy and acceptance and commitment are effective, but emotion-based therapy is more effective.

Keywords

References

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medical journal of mashhad university of medical sciences
Volume 65, Issue 3
May and June 2022
Pages 1125-1138

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