Effectiveness of Treatment Based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus Training Coping Strategies on Anxiety and Despair of Mothers of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

The birth of a child with authistic spectrum disorder is a challenge to the family, especially to mothers. The purpose of this research was to compare the effectiveness of acceptance commitment therapy and coping strategies in decreasing anxiety and despair in mothers of children with autism.

This qausi-experimental multigroup pre-test, post-test design with a control group enrolled 30 mothers of children with autism who were being treated in teaching-treatment centers of Booshehr city using convenience sampling. They were randomly classified into three groups. The experimental groups participated in eight sessions of 90 minutes in 8 weeks, while the control group did not receive anyinterventions. Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Hopelessness Scale were used to collect research data. The collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and Tukey post hoc test.

Results showed that acceptance commitment therapy and training coping strategies significantly decreased anxiety and despair in mothers in the experimental groups compared to those in the control group (p<0.01), but the decrease was not significant in the follow-up stage. Tukey's test showed acceptance commitment therapy was significantly more effective for anxiety than training coping strategies in the
post-test (p<0.01).

Our findings showed that both treatments were effective in decreasing anxiety and despair. Hence, therapists can use these two therapeutic and training approaches, especially acceptance commitment therapy, which is a new wave of cognitive – behavioral therapy.