The Effects of Life Skills Training on Cognitive Emotional Regulation Strategies of Pregnant mothers

 Evidence shows that pregnant women do not have the skills required to use effective cognitive emotional regulation strategies. Life skills training is one of the effective interventions to alleviate psychological problems during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to determine the possible effects of life skills training on cognitive emotional regulation strategies in pregnant women.

 This study employed a quasi-experimental design. The research population included all pregnant women living in Tabriz in 2017, of whom 30 women were selected through the availability sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 participants per group). The participants in both groups completed Garnefski's (2001) Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (2001) as the pretest and also as the post-test immediately after the completion of the treatment. The members of the experimental group participated in the life skills training sessions (each session lasting one hour) for eight weeks, while the participants in the control group did not receive any intervention. The pretest and posttest data were analyzed using multivariate and univariable covariance analysis by SPSS.18 software.

 Life skills training increases the use of positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (positive re-focus, re-focus on planning, positive reappraisal, acceptance and adopting views) in pregnant women and reduces the use of negative strategies (catastrophizing, self-blame, rumination, and others’ blame) (p<0.001).

 Given that life skills training has an impact on the cognitive emotional regulation of pregnant women, holding training programs on these skills is recommended as an effective training method for promoting positive cognitive emotional regulation strategies and reducing negative strategies, especially during pregnancy.