The Effectiveness of Reality Therapy Training on Coping Strategies and Cognitive Distortions among Pregnant Women

Pregnancy is one of the most sensitive periods of human life and long-term awaiting their child’s birth and constant worrying for maintaining their health during pregnancy is one of the most important concerns of the mother. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of reality therapy on coping strategies and cognitive distortions aming pregnant women referred to Najmejh Hospital in Tehran. The study had a semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and control and experimental group. The statistical population of this study included all pregnant women who were referred to Najmej Hospital in Tehran in 2015. Participants included 60 women, who were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups of 30. The experimental group underwent nine 90-minute courses of reality therapy, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Participants of the two groups were evaluated in two stages (pre-test and post-test) using stress coping strategy and cognitive distortion questionnaires. To analyze the collected data, inferential statistics of single variable covariance analysis as well as descriptive statistics were used using SPSS-22. The mean (SD) age was 28.2 (1.22) in the experimental group and 26.3 (2.14) for the control group. The mean (SD) problem-oriented coping strategies score in the pre-test of the experimental group was 42.1 (2.4) which increased to 47.6 (5.1) (P<0.002), the excitatory strategy score was 36.7 (4.3) which decreased to 32.5 (4.5) (P<0.02), and the avoidance of the circuit score was 36.9 (3.9) which decreased to 31.9 (3.6) (P<0.003). In addition, the mean (SD) cognitive disturbances score in the pre-test of the experimental group was 56.5 (8.9) which decreased to 44.8 (8.5) (P<0.01); however, the score varied from 56.5 (5.5) to 54.3 (3.9) in the control group which was not statistically significant. The study showed that reality therapy resulted in improved coping strategies and cognitive distortions are pregnant.