فصلنامه مددکاری اجتماعی
سال نهم شماره 32 (تابستان 1399)

Having a child with a disability can cause stress and pressure on parents and affect their quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of psychological empowerment on the quality of life of mothers of children with disabilities covered by the community-based rehabilitation program.

The research method was experimental. The design of this study was a pre-test-post-test with a control group. The statistical population included all mothers of children with disabilities of Marvdasht welfare department who took part in the community-based rehabilitation program in 2017; from whom thirty people were selected as a sample by convenience sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of fifteen people each. The pre-test was performed for both groups. The experimental intervention group received psychological empowerment in ten sessions. The control group received no treatment. Finally, the post-test was performed for both groups. The research instrument was the world health organization’s quality of life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

The findings showed that psychological empowerment did not have a significant effect on the overall score of quality of life (P=0.095) but had a significant effect on the subscale of physical health and social relationships.(P<0.05) The effective rate on physical health and social relationships respectively was 0.433 and 0.195.

The findings of this study show that psychological empowerment has improved some components of the quality of life of mothers covered by a community-based rehabilitation program. Therefore, it is suggested to authorities and planners of the welfare organization to provide psychological empowerment workshops for all family members of children with disabilities by allocating more funds and supporting community-based rehabilitation programs.

Self-efficacy and creativity are two important factors in childhood; some activity as play can probably enhance them. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of pretend plays on the self-efficacy and creativity of parentless children and children with neglectful parenting in Karaj.

The research method was semi-experimental. The research community consisted of all children seven to twelve years old under the supervision of the welfare organization in Karag city. The children were parentless or suffered from lack of parental care living in two different orphanages called Nasle Mehre Yekta and Daste Mehrabane Madar. Considering the scores they received in a pretest and the criteria of inclusion and exclusion, thirty children were selected and assigned to two groups of fifteen by purposive sampling method. The research tools in this study were the SEQ-C measures childrenchr('39')s self-efficacy of Muris(2001) and the Torrance tests of creative thinking(1984) figural form A. The experimental group received eight sessions of group pretended play therapy. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance by SPSS20. 

Findings showed a significant difference in post-test mean scores of creativity and self-efficacy and their subscales in the experiment group in comparison to the control group. (P<0/05)

The results suggest that pretend play therapy could increase self-efficacy and creativity in parentless children and children with neglectful parenting. Therefore, it could be a good way to improve the mental health of these children.

Child labor is a very serious problem in many major cities and capitals around world, especially in developing countries. These children are exposed to adverse health, physical, psychological, sexual, and social dangers because of their work and living conditions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on the anxiety of labor children.

The present research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group. The statistical population consisted of all students between eight to eleven years old of labor child schools; who were randomly selected from two schools of labor children in Tehran divided into two groups of control and experiment, fifteen children each. After performing the pretest, the experimental group received seventeen sessions (sixty minutes each) of therapeutic plays based on the cognitive-behavioral approach but the control group did not receive any treatments. Subsequently, in both experimental and control groups, the posttest was performed using Spence children′s anxiety scale(1997). 

At the start, the assumptions about the normalization and homogeneity of variables were evaluated. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that all variables showed normally distributed.(P≤0.01) Also, Boxchr('39')s M test (Boxchr('39')s test for Equivalence of Covariance Matrices) confirmed the homogeneity of the variance-covariance assumption. So, assumptions of the MANCOVA test were confirmed and the MANCOVA test can be used for the analysis of data. The results of MANCOVA revealed posttest scores of experimental and control groups had a significant difference concerning the therapeutic playing method.(P≤0.01) It can be stated that according to the Eta2, forty-five percent of the remaining total variance was affected by therapeutic play therapy.

Since cognitive-behavioral based play therapy was effective and helped children to controlled their anxiety level and enhance their learning, it is recommended that mentors, psychotherapists, and custodians of education, to provide labor child with easier access to a more flexible education system that facilitates and prevent them from entry to the labor market.

Family function has been changed by the couplechr('39')s simultaneous employment and presents particular problems ahead of them. The children dimension is one of the dimensions that strongly influences the family function. The purpose of this study was to extract the lived experience of the dual-career couple from the influence of the children dimension on family functioning. 

This research approach was qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis and done in Nourabad, Lorestan. In this study, two groups of twelve dual-career couples with and without marital conflicts were selected by snowball sampling through purposeful sampling and interviewed for a period of four months (November to February 2018-2019). Interviews were analyzed using the Diekelmann, Allen, Tanner method, which is team-based and is common in interpretive phenomenology.

The analysis of the data resulted in the identification of two main themes including healthy functioning (with sub-themes: positive functions for children, interactive parenting, and professional parenting) and unhealthy functioning (with sub-themes: negative functions for children, confrontational parenting, perilous parenting, and childbearing as a threat). 

The findings of this qualitative study, identifying the positive and negative factors affecting the dimension of children in family functioning of working couples, can provide the basis for developing educational programs and packages to reduce the effects of parenting injuries on this lifestyle. It is suggested that the findings of this qualitative study be used by clinicians, counselors, and psychiatrists working with couples for prevention and education.

The youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH) is a useful way to investigate their needs and evaluate educational and rehabilitation programs. This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH).

The was a psychometric typed descriptive study. Translation and translation-back were used to prepare the Persian version of the youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH). The statistical population of the present research was experts in two fields of psychology and education of exceptional children, and eleven to nineteen years old deaf or hard of hearing adolescents in 2019. The sample includes seven experts and one hundred twenty deaf and hard of hearing adolescents who were selected by convenient sampling method in Isfahan. The viewpoints of seven experts were gathered to assess the questionnaire’s face and content validity. The Content validity index was calculated by the Lawshe(1975) and Waltz and Bausell(1981) methods. The construct validity was analyzed using factor analysis. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest.

The youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH) was translated into three subscales and thirty-two items with a set of ten answer choices for each question. The face validity and content validity (CVI=0.81) were confirmed satisfactory. The content validity index was 0.79, 0.88, and 0.85 for subscales of self-acceptance/advocacy, perceived stigma, and participation. The reliability for the subscales of the youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH) using Cronbach’s alpha was 0.84, 0.81, and 0.83, respectively. Also, reliability using the test-retest method was 0.76, 0.73, and 0.74. There was a moderate to a strong correlation between subscales of the youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH) with the KIDSCREEN instruments assess children’s and adolescents’ subjective health and well-being and Depression anxiety stress scales.(P< 0.05)

The result of this study showed that The youth quality of life instrument-deaf and hard of hearing(YQOL-DHH) could be a valid and reliable tool. Therefore, has capable to be used in Iran and can be used for assessing the quality of life of deaf or hard of hearing adolescents.

Coronary artery disease is one of the largest causes of death and disability in the world. The purpose of this study was to compare perceived social support, spiritual well-being, and psychological capital between people with and without coronary artery disease.

The method of this research was a causal-comparative descriptive. The statistical population of this study was all cardiac patients referred to Shariati hospital in Mashhad in 2017-2018. A hundred samples included fifty patients with and fifty people without heart disease were selected as the study sample by the available sampling method. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support questionary (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley1988), The Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) (Paloutzian & Ellison, 1982), and The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman2007) used as the study instruments. The data analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance.

The results showed a significant difference in perceived social support, spiritual well-being, and psychological capital between people with and without heart diseases. (P<0.01)

According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the levels of perceived social support, spiritual well-being, and psychological capital are among the variables associated with coronary artery disease, in a way that coronary artery disease patients experience lower levels of perceived social support, spiritual well-being and psychological capital as compared to healthy people. It is suggested that the authorities involved in the coronary artery disease community plan early intervention to increase the perceived social support, spiritual well-being, and psychological capital on their agenda.