Fundamentals of Mental Health

Fundamentals of Mental Health

The effectiveness of group counseling based on acceptance and commitment on resilience and marital adjustment of mothers of children with leukemia

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Fatemeh Kianfar 1
Esmail Asadpour 2
Kianoush Zahrakar 3
1 Ph.D. student in counseling, Faculty of Humanities, Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan, Iran.
2 Associate professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22038/jfmh.2023.22570
Abstract
Introduction: Having a child with leukemia is a major challenge for the mother, which can affect her personal and marital life. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of group counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy on resilience and marital adjustment of mothers with children who have leukemia.
Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of mothers with children who have leukemia in the oncology ward of Ayatollah Madani Hospital in Khorramabad-Iran in 2020-21. Of the 50 volunteers, 20 who received the lowest scores in the scales (Connor Richardson Resilience and Spinner Marital Adjustment) were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Data analyzed using the MANCOVA test and SPSS-25 software.
Results: The results of covariance analysis revealed that group counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy significantly increased the resilience and marital adjustment of mothers in the experimental group compared to the controls (P< 0.05), with 79.9% of the changes being explained by the treatment.
Conclusion: Considering the effectiveness of group counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy, therapists can use this treatment model to reduce the harm caused by the child's disease.
Keywords
Acceptance and commitment therapy
Leukemia
Marital adjustment
Mothers
Resilience
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Fundamentals of Mental Health
Volume 25, Issue 2
March and April 2023
Pages 133-139