Effectiveness of Efficient Parenting Model on Parent-Child Relationship and Parental Sense of Competence in Divorced Mothers

Mothers are vulnerable to divorce and may face a range of challenges that negatively impact their mental health. These may include heightened levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. Mothers have a greater influence on children's development due to spending more time with them; Therefore, the stress of the mother has an impact on her interaction with the child. Divorced mothers face unique challenges, including increased risk of exhaustion and emotional distress, due to the added responsibilities of taking care of children, managing household affairs, and overseeing their children's education; Therefore, mothers feel that they are not enough to take care of their children and for this reason, they feel unworthy. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the effective parenting model on the parent–child relationship and parental sense of competence in divorced mothers.

This study was semi–experimental and was conducted with a pre–test–post–test design with two control and experimental groups. The statistical population of this research included divorced mothers with teenage children who referred to counselling and psychology centers in Tehran. Among the statistical population, 30 qualified volunteers were randomly entered into the study and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (each group includes 15 people). The criteria for entering participants to the research include: being a divorced mother; having a teenage child; having at least a diploma level of education; not participating in other therapeutic interventions at the same time. Exclusion criteria were absenteeism more than out of three sessions and non–observance of group therapy rules. Both groups completed the Parent–Child Relationship Scale (Fine et al., 1983) and Parental Sense of Competence Scale (Gibaud–Wallston & Wandersman, 1978) in the pre–test and post–test stages. The effective parenting training program was implemented in the experimental group as a 90–minute session and every session once a week, But the control group did not receive any treatment plan. Data analysis was carried out in two parts: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. At the level of descriptive statistics of frequency, mean, and standard deviation and inferential statistics, analysis of covariance was used. Data analysis was done in SPSS software version 24, and the significance level of the tests was considered to be 0.05.

The results showed that there was a significant difference in the variables of the parent–child relationship (positive emotions, hate and loss of role, identity and communication) (p<0.001) and parental sense of competence (p<0.001) between the experimental and control groups in the post–test, after removing the effect of the pre–test; Also, effective parenting training was able to increase positive emotions by 41%, identity by 86%, communication by 69%, and hate and loss of role by 63%. Also, effective parenting training increased the parental sense of competence by 79%.

This research showed that teaching the efficient parenting model to divorced mothers is suitable for improving the parent–child relationship and increasing the parental sense of competence.