Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Shawn Kerr''s Self-Encouragement Teaching Method on the Mental Health and Marital Satisfaction of the Parents Having Children with Mild Mental Retardation

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of self-encouragement teaching method on the mental health and marital satisfaction of the parents having children with mild mental retardation. To this end، two middle range schools for exceptional students in Tehran were selected and after making the students homogeneous in terms of such criteria as their school grade، age، parental education level and family income، 36 parents were chosen on the basis of convenience sampling method and، then، they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Both groups were initially given a pre-test. After giving the treatment، both groups were tested again. To examine the retention resulting from the treatment or any other change، the parents were given a follow-up test after a month. The data were collected using General Health Questionnaire 28 and Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire. To analyze the results، descriptive statistics and inferential statistics methods (analysis of covariance) were utilized. The results obtained from the post-test analyses showed that Shawn Kerr’s teaching method improved parents’ mental health، in general، and marital satisfaction، in particular. Also، this method improved the scales of physical symptoms، anxiety and social functions but it had no effect on depression. The results of the follow-up test indicated that the effects of teaching had remained after a month. A notable point is that the analysis of the results of the follow-up test showed that subjects’ depression had deceased after a month. Hence، it can be concluded that self- encouragement techniques can be taught to parents since they can be effective in maintaining their mental health.