The Effectiveness of Psychological Empowerment on the Quality of Life of Mothers of Children with Disabilities Covered by the Community-Based Rehabilitation Program

Having a child with a disability can cause stress and pressure on parents and affect their quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of psychological empowerment on the quality of life of mothers of children with disabilities covered by the community-based rehabilitation program.

The research method was experimental. The design of this study was a pre-test-post-test with a control group. The statistical population included all mothers of children with disabilities of Marvdasht welfare department who took part in the community-based rehabilitation program in 2017; from whom thirty people were selected as a sample by convenience sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of fifteen people each. The pre-test was performed for both groups. The experimental intervention group received psychological empowerment in ten sessions. The control group received no treatment. Finally, the post-test was performed for both groups. The research instrument was the world health organization’s quality of life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

The findings showed that psychological empowerment did not have a significant effect on the overall score of quality of life (P=0.095) but had a significant effect on the subscale of physical health and social relationships.(P<0.05) The effective rate on physical health and social relationships respectively was 0.433 and 0.195.

The findings of this study show that psychological empowerment has improved some components of the quality of life of mothers covered by a community-based rehabilitation program. Therefore, it is suggested to authorities and planners of the welfare organization to provide psychological empowerment workshops for all family members of children with disabilities by allocating more funds and supporting community-based rehabilitation programs.