The Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Quality of Life in Mothers of Children with Cancer

Cancer is among various chronic diseases, and in spite of vast advancements made in medicine, progress of cancer treatments and the increasing number of survivors of cancer, this disease is still unique concerning the feelings of helplessness and deep fear which brings about in the individual. Compared to parents of healthy children, parents of children with cancer are more prone to psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, stress, and mental health threats in general. The present study was conducted by the aim of investigating the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on quality of life in mothers of children with cancer.
The present research was conducted by a semi-experimental method which used a pretest-posttest with control group design. Among all the mothers of children with cancer who visited The Institute of Supporting Children with Cancer (Mahak) in Tehran in 2016, 30 individuals were selected by available sampling method, and they were assigned into experiment and control groups randomly (15 individuals per group). The assessment of quality of life in the subjects was done by The World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQL). Participants of the experiment group received acceptance and commitment therapy for 8 sessions, while the control group received no intervention. For analyzing the data, univariate covariance analysis (ANCOVA) and SPSS v20 were used.
Mean and standard deviance of the subjects’ scores of quality of life in the experiment group was 70.40 ± 6.40 in the pretest, and it was 92.87 ± 13.35 in posttest. In addition, in the control group, mean and standard deviance of quality of life was 69.07 ± 5.73 in the pretest, and it was 68 ± 7.58 in the posttest. Results of the univariate covariance analysis suggested that the acceptance and commitment therapy had significantly improved quality of life in subjects of the experiment group in posttest (F = 45.35 and P Acceptance and commitment therapy was effective in improving quality of life in mothers of children with cancer. This therapeutic method is recommended as an appropriate and effective intervention for reducing psychological problems in parents of children with chronic diseases. Keywords: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cancer, Quality of Life