The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-oriented Training on Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Mothers of Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of training of acceptance and commitment based therapy on depression, anxiety and stress among mothers of children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms. The study design was a quasi-experimental, with pretest, posttest and follow-up. Four boys’ state elementary schools were randomly selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Then, 40 mothers were selected as the research sample, based on the teacher and Parents' Child Symptom Inventory (Sprafkin, Gadow, Salisbury, Schneider & Loney, 2002), using screening procedure. They were randomly assigned to two groups of 20. The groups were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received the hexagon model of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as the protocol. Participants in three stages completed pre-test, post-test and follow-up of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) and Child Symptom Inventory (). The results of Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that depression, anxiety, and Stress were significantly decreased in the intervention group. The results of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder of children also showed a decrease in these symptoms in children. Overall, the results of the study indicated that training of the hexagon model of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) affects the performance of mothers, and the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder in their children.