The effectiveness of resilience training on mental health in siblings of children with down syndrome

Aim and The siblings of children with Down syndrome are at risk for psychological disorders. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigae the effectiveness of resiliencetraining on mental health in siblings of children with Down syndrome. Methods and Materials: In the present study a semi- experimental design with pretest-posttest and follow up design was utilized. The statistical population of this research included the whole adolescents (age between 14- 18) having sibling with Down syndrome in Shiraz city، Iran. The sample size was 30 adolescents having sibling with Down syndrome were selected by whole population sampling method assigned for experimental and control groups randomly. Mental Health Inventory (MHI 28) was used for measuring Mental Health that includes two components: psychological wellbeingand psychological distress Analyzing of data using Mix ANOVAs with repeated measure design revealed that wellbeing in siblings of children with Down syndrome in experimental group significantly improved and their psychological distress significantly decreased and these results were permanent in the follow up step. On the other hand، no significant difference was observed between subjects on the base of gender. According to the results of this study we can conclude that by training of skills related with resilience، it is possible to enhance the mental health of siblings of children with Down syndrome.