Mindfulness- Based Cognitive Behavioral Training for Mothers on the Self-Efficacy of Children with Specific Learning Disabilities

Specific learning disabilities involve disorders of learning and cognition that are intrinsic to the individual. Specific learning disabilities are specific in the sense that these disorders each significantly affect a relatively narrow range of academic and performance outcomes. Specific learning disabilities may occur in combination with other disabling conditions, but they are not due primarily to other conditions, such as intellectual disability, behavioral disturbance, lack of opportunities to learn, or primary sensory deficits. Children with specific learning abilities have a poor sense of self-efficacy. Research has demonstrated a relationship between child self-efficacy and mother-child interaction. Mother created an environment that may influence child self-efficacy in a numerous way. There continues to be a need for effective interventions that can be utilized within the home setting to assist the student with specific learning abilities. One of these interventions is Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral training. Mindfulness is a process of openly attending, with awareness, to one’s present moment experience. Despite numerous studies available on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral training, only a few have examined the effectiveness of this therapy on a student with specific learning disabilities and their mothers, Therefore the present study aimed to investigate the effects of mothers’ Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral training on Self-Efficacy in their children with specific learning disabilities.

In a quasi-experimental design, a pretest-posttest and follow-up with the control group paradigm applied. The statistical participants of this study consist of all mothers and students aged 8-12 years with specific learning disabilities in Tehran city in the academic year of 2017-2018. A sample of, 56 (28 mothers and 28 children) were selected through purposive sampling method and randomly divided into experimental (14 students with their mothers) and control groups (14 students with their mothers). The Inclusion Criteria for mothers were being 25 years old or above, holding a diploma degree or above. Also, the exclusion criteria were suffering from psychotic disorders. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were evaluated based on interviews and self-reports of participants. Data collection tools were the Morgan Jinks Children's Self-Efficacy scale which was performed before and after the intervention and in the follow-up period of 3 months on both control and experimental groups. Morgan-Jinks self-efficacy scale has thirty items and three subscales: talent, effort and context. This instrument was validated through field testing and item analysis. The resulted in the 30-item scale with an overall reliability coefficient of 0.82; the subscale alphas were 0.78 for talent; 0.70 for context, and 0.66 for effort. The experimental group received cognitive-behavioural of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral training in 8 sessions of 2 hours. The control group did not receive any specialized training. The groups tested before and immediately after the intervention and at the follow-up period of 3 months. Repeated measures of variance analyzed the collected data. All analyses were done in SPSS.

Data analysis showed that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral training for mothers has no significant effect on the Self-Efficacy of their children with specific learning disabilities in the experimental group. Also, there was no significant difference among, pretest, posttest and follow up scores of Self-efficacy subscales (talent, context and effort) in the control group and the experimental group.

As a part of the treatment for students with specific learning Disabilities, mindfulness should be used with caution.