The Effectiveness of Parent Education with Adlerian Approach in Reducing Guilt in Depressed Children and Improving Their Psychological Well-being

This study is to examine the effectiveness of parent education that employs Adlerian approach in reducing guilt in depressed children and improving their psychological well-being. The method of this research is quasi experimental with pre-test/post-test design followed-up by a group control. The statistical population consists of all sixth-grade students in elementary school of Kamyaran, Kurdistan, Iran studying during the academic year of 2017-2018 Ad (1396-1397 SH). Using randomized cluster sampling, boys and girls were selected and 60 parents whose children showed signs of depression were placed into experimental and control groups. The experimental group went through 8 ninety-minute sessions of parent education with Adlerian approach. In both groups, parents’ children answered to questionnaires that were designed based on Ryff’s psychological well-being scales (2002) and Izonk’s guilt and shame scales (2007). The data was analyzed with mixed-design analysis of variance. Accordingly, the findings have shown that the average scores of post-test and follow-up of the feelings of guilt in depressed students decreased and their psychological well-being improved significantly. Therefore, parent education that employs Adlerian approach has been effective in decreasing guilt in depressed children and improving their psychological well-being.