Development and Assessment of Effects of De-Stress Training Program on Stress of Mothers with Mentally Disabled Children

Any form of disability is considered a critical factor having significant effects on a family. Stress is the main result of such effects on parents. According to the classical procedure, the mothers play a major role as child caregiver, so they experience more stress than other members of the family. The goal of this study was to develop and assess the role of the de-stress training program in decreasing the stress of mothers of mentally disabled children.
This study was a semi-experimental research with follow-up. The study sample included 20 mothers of children with mental disabled who live in Tehran. The parental stress scale was used for measuring mother’s stress. Data was analyzed by univariate analysis of covariance.
The data presented a significant difference between the control and experiment groups. Also, the results did not show a significant difference between pre-test and follow-up, indicating a persistent effect of the training.
De-stress training program was found to significantly decrease the stress of mothers of mentally disabled children.