The Effectiveness of Positive Thinking Skills Training on Distress Tolerance and Quality of Life in Mothers of Students with Special Learning Disorders

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of positive thinking skills training on distress tolerance and quality of life (QoL) in mothers of students with special learning disabilities. This study is based on a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest approach with a control group. The statistical population of the study includes all mothers of children aged 6 to 12 years with special learning disorders in Islamshahr (Iran) in 2020. A total of 30 mothers were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The required data were collected using the Distress Tolerance Scale by Simons and Gaher (2005) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (2000). The participants in the experimental group were trained with positive thinking skills in seven sessions. The control group did not receive any intervention during this period. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that positive thinking skills training significantly increased distress tolerance and QoL in mothers (P-value <.01). In general, based on the results, teaching positive thinking skills is recommended as an effective intervention in increasing distress tolerance and QoL in mothers of students with special learning disorders.