Cognitive-Behavioral Instruction on Anxiety and Hope of Mothers of Children with Learning Disability

The birth of children is a turning point in the lives of parents. Parents expect their child for nine months. If this expectation fails, they will disappoint hugely. One of the problems that some children are facing is learning disabilities. Learning disabilities are defined as impaired general academic skills in reading, mathematics, and written expression which reveal a significant problem in terms of academic achievement, job performance or activities of daily life for one's children in the future. This problem affects parents, especially mothers, and creates problems such as stress, anxiety, despair, and depression for them. This study aimed to study the effect of cognitive–behavioral instruction on anxiety and life expectancy of mothers of children with learning disabilities.

This study employed the two–group pretest–posttest quasi–experimental design. For this purpose, using convenience sampling was used to recruit 30 mothers of children with learning disabilities in Neyshabur–Iran in 2017. The participants randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The experimental group received ten sessions of 90 minute Cognitive–behavioral instruction every week. Being on a waiting list, the control group received no intervention. Ethical considerations considered for the study, and mothers who participated in the study filled out a consent form. After completing the study, mothers who were in the control group received cognitive–behavioral training. All the names of the mothers participating in the study were confidential. Life expectancy questionnaire by Schneider et al. (1991) and Beck and Epstein Anxiety Scale (1993) were used to collect the data. The data analyzed in two descriptive and inferential statistics levels. At descriptive statistics level, mean and standard deviation and at the inferential level, multivariate analysis of covariance used. Before carrying out the analysis of covariance first, its assumptions studied. Homogeneity of regression slopes, the linearity of regression, homogeneity of error variances, independence of error terms, normality of error terms, and interval data were the assumptions of ANCOVA. All the assumptions observed.

The results of covariance analysis showed that there were significant differences in anxiety between mothers who received cognitive–behavioral training and mothers who received no intervention (p<0.001) and life expectancy (p<0.001). In other words, reduced anxiety and increased life expectancy among mothers who received the cognitive–behavioral education was more than mothers in the control group.

According to obtained results, we can say that cognitive–behavioral training is effective in reducing anxiety and increasing the life expectancy of mothers of children with learning disabilities. Therefore, planning for cognitive–behavioral education is particularly important for reducing anxiety and increasing life–expectancy of mothers of children with learning disabilities. It is possible as training parents and the family in schools for students with special needs. Decreasing anxiety and increasing hope for mothers of children with special needs reduces parental stress and creates a safe environment at home help in improving children with learning disabilities.