The Effectiveness of Stress Management Training on Marital Satisfaction and Parental Stress in Mothers with Children with Behavioral Problems

Background and Research evidences suggest that stress is a major contributor in marital conflicts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of stress management training on marital satisfaction and parental stress of mothers with child with behavioral problems.
This semi-experimental research was a pre-test-post-test-follow-up with the control group. The statistical population in this research was all mothers with preschool children with behavioral problems in Rasht city. Through preschool children's behavioral problems questionnaire pre-preschool children's questionnaire (Shahim and Yousefy, 1999), 30 mothers were selected using convenient sampling method and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control (n = 15). Enrich marital satisfaction scale (Olson, 1989) and Abidin parental stress scale (Abidin, 1990) had been used for data collecting. The experimental group received stress management training in ten sessions. For data analysis, repeated measure ANOVA was used.
Findings showed that stress management training had a significant effect on marital satisfaction and parental stress (P According to the findings of the present study, along with statistical significance, we can point to clinical significance. It means that stress management training can increase the life satisfaction by affecting the emotional, cognitive, communicative, motivational and semantic dimensions of life, and consequently mental health of mothers with children with behavioral problems.