Effectiveness of the Nurturing Program for Parents and their Children with Special Needs and their Health Challenges on the Perceived Energy for Parenting and Mindfulness

Previous studies indicate the importance of the perceived energy for parenting and mindfulness in the optimal upbringing of children with special needs. In this regard, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of nurturing program for parents and children with special needs and their health challenges on the perceived energy for parenting and mindfulness.

The present research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest- posttest control group design. The population of the study consisted of parents of children with special needs in the exceptional schools of the first district of Rasht city in the first semester of academic year 2019-2020. The sample consisted of 60 parents (mother/father) who were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. The applied instruments were Perceived Energy for Parenting Scale (Janisse, Barnett, & Nies, 2009) and Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory-Short Form (Walach et al., 2006). The experimental group, including children with special needs and their parents received twelve sessions of nurturing program for parents and children with special needs and their health challenges (Burton et al., 2018), but the control group did not receive any intervention. Eventually, the data were analyzed by one-way analysis of covariance.

The findings indicated that the nurturing program for parents and their children with special needs and their health challenges had a significant effect on increasing perceived energy for parenting (F=80.94) and mindfulness (F=9.10) (P<0.01).

Considering the importance of perceived energy for parenting and mindfulness in optimal child rearing, the current nurturing program with a focus on attitudes, needs, independence, empathy, and parent-child relationship can be an effective intervention for enhancing perceived energy for parenting and mindfulness in the parents of children with special needs.