The Effectiveness of Resilience Training Integrated with Self-Compassion on Self-Talk and Psychological Distress in Mothers of Mentally Retarded Students

The birth of a child in any family can create a turning point in the life of any individual and lead to many changes. But births become problematic when they are born with a disability. The aim of this study was to evaluate The effectiveness of self-compassionate resilience training on self-talk and psychological distress in parents of mentally retarded students.

This study was conducted with a quantitative approach and a quasi-experimental method using a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of all mothers of mentally retarded children in Ardakan. Using the available sampling method, 30 people were selected as a sample and randomly assigned to two groups of 15 people (experimental and control). Participants answered Kessler et al.'s (2002) Psychological Distress Questionnaire and Brin Tapet et al.'s (2008) Self-talk Questionnaire (STS). Compassionate integration training was also taught to mothers of mentally retarded children in Ardakan during 8 sessions of 1.5 hours. But the control group did not receive any intervention during the experiment. Finally, the research data were analyzed using analysis of covariance and at a significance level of 0.05

The results showed that resilience training combined with self-compassion had a significant effect on self-talk and psychological distress of parents of students with mental disabilities (P <0.001).

Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that resilience education integrated with compassion can be a good option to improve the psychological status and mental health of mothers of students with intellectual disabilities.