Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Emotion Regulation Training on Parental Stress of Mothers with Aggressive Children

Aggression is one of the major problems in schools. Family members, especially mothers play an important role in the development of aggressive behaviors in children. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and emotion regulation training on parental stress of mothers with aggressive children.

This study was an experimental research with pretest-posttest control group design. The population included all the female students studying at the primary schools of Namin city in the academic year of 2018-2019 (N=540) together with their mothers. Totally, 217 students as the initial sample were selected by multi-stage clustering sampling and the aggression questionnaire was completed for them by the teachers. Finally, considering the inclusion criteria, mothers of 60 aggressive student were selected as the study sample and randomly assigned to any of the three groups (n=20 per group). Data were collected by Shahim's Aggression Scale (Shahim, 2006) and Parenting Stress Questionnaire (Abidin, 2016) and analyzed by ANCOVA through using SPSS Version 20.

Data analysis showed that both mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and emotion regulation training were effective in decreasing the parental stress of mothers with aggressive children. Also, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was more effective in decreasing the parental stress of mothers with aggressive children in comparison to emotion regulation training (p<0.05).

Considering the higher effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on parental stress, it can be concluded that through techniques such as paying attention to breathing and body and turning awareness here and now, mindfulness affects the cognitive system and information processing and reduces mental rumination and dysfunctional attitudes in people, and these changes can reduce parental stress.