The Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Training on Quality of Life, Coping Strategies, and Emotional Alexithymia of Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Isfahan City

The aim of study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotion regulation training on the quality of life, coping strategies, and alexithymia of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder. The research method was semi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of all mothers of autistic children referring to a rehabilitation center for autistic children in Isfahan was 80 people. 30 mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder were selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people) and control group (15 people). The mothers of the experimental group were trained in emotion regulation based on the Gross model (2002) during 8 sessions that were 2 hours, while the control group did not receive any intervention during this period. Before and after the training, all subjects answered the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (1989), the Lazarus and Folkman Coping Strategies Questionnaire (1984) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 Questionnaire (1994). Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 24 and univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance. The results of the research showed that the scores of quality of life and coping strategies of the experimental group were significantly higher and the scores of alexithymia were significantly lower (P<0.05) in the post-test stage compared to the control group. These findings, suggest that emotion regulation training is a suitable way to improve the quality of life, coping strategies and alexithymia in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, and can be used as an intervention with empirical evidence in psychological clinics.