The Effects of Positive Thinking Skills Training Based on Islamic Teachings and Beliefs on Resilience and Psychological Well-Being of Mothers with Autistic Children

This study sought to investigate the effects of positive thinking skills training based on Islamic teachings and beliefs on resilience and psychological well-being of mothers with autistic children. This quasi-experimental research had a pretest-posttest control group design. The statistical population of the study comprised all mothers with autistic children who were referred to Social Welfare Centers in Tabriz in 2016 from among them thirty individuals were selected through convenience sampling method and assigned to experimental and control groups. The instruments consisted of Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (1989) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (2003). The obtained data were analyzed by using ANCOVA and MANCOVA. The results demonstrated that positive thinking skills training based on Islamic teachings and beliefs had significant, positive effects on mothers’ psychological well-being and resilience. As to the components of psychological well-being, positive thinking skills training had significant, positive effects on personal growth, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, and self-acceptance, whereas the intervention did not have any significant impact on autonomy and purpose in life. Hence, positive thinking skills training based on Islamic teachings and beliefs can enhance psychological well-being and resilience of mothers with autistic children and due to the relationship between psychological well-being and resilience with many health-promoting variables, this training can help improve autistic children’s lives.