Evaluating the Effect of Parent Training Based on an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Parenting Self-Efficacy in Mothers of Children with Externalizing Behavior Problems

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of ACT based parenting training on parental self-efficacy of mothers who have children with externalizing behavior problems. The research method was semi-experimental with pretest, postest, follow-up design with a control group. The research population was consisted of mothers of preschoolers with externalizing behavior problems in Najafabad city of Isfahan in 1396.
Convenient sampling method was applied and 30 volunteer mothers were selected according to research criteria and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. ACT based parenting was thought to experimental group in 10 90 minute sessions, meanwhile the control group was on the waiting list. The research instrument was parental self-agency measure (PSAM). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results of the repeated measures variance analysis showed that ACT parenting training significantly increased the parental self-efficacy of mothers in the experimental group compared to the control group. So, it can be concluded that acceptance and commitment based interventions were effective on enhancing the parents’ sense of cempetency and satisfaction about their performance towards their children.