The effect of life skills face to face meeting on mental health of children of divorce

Children of divorce are exposed to so many problems such as: psychiatric disorders, failing to have social communication and personality disorders. The purpose of life skill program is to improve psycho-social skills in order to cope and interface with new and routine challenges and circumstances in life. This study was conducted to assess the effects of life skills training on mental health problems of children of divorce.

In This interventional study, 60 children of divorce were randomly selected from Shahrekord city and divided into two groups of intervention and control, 30 in each group. After completing the pre-test SDQ questionnaire, the intervention group was trained for life skills with emphasis on the problems of divorce. Again after two months of study the SDQ questionnaires were completed. Data were analyzed by independent t-test, pair t-test and Chi square.

In comparison between interventional group and control group, before training, there was not a significant difference between the mean scores of emotional symptoms, conduct disorder, hyperactivity, problems between peers and good social behavior and the total score (P>0.05). After training the mean of, conduct disorder, peer problem and total score were significantly decreased in the intervention group (P<0.05).

Holding the group and face to face meeting on life skill training with stressing on the children of divorce is an important factor in increasing the mental health of children and their families.