The Effectiveness of Creative Problem-solving Training Program on Emotional Management and Resilience in Mothers of Gifted High School Students

Gifted students have unique characteristics and needs. Family dynamics can play a very important role in psychological wellbeing and actualization of the giftedness in these students. In order to have mothers’ problem-solving skills, her emotional regulation and resiliency is critical for having a calm and blooming family environment for a gifted child. Given the importance of problem-solving skills for mothers, this study focused on studying the effectiveness of creative problem-solving training program on emotional management and resilience in mothers of gifted high school students.

This study was conducted as a semi-experimental research with pre-test-post-test design and a control group. Using multiple intelligence measurements and teachers’ recommendations, 20 male high school students with a high IQ were selected and their mothers were randomly assigned to the experimental and the control group. Participants participated in the 10 sessions of the creative problem-solving training program in each session (70-90 minutes) of creative interpersonal problem solving, and the control group waited in the waiting list. In order to assess emotion regulation, CERQ (Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Garnefski, 2001) and for evaluating resilience, Conner and Davidson questionnaire of Resilience (2003) were used.

The obtained data were analyzed using Multiple Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). The findings showed significant differences (p<0.05) between the experimental and the control group in both emotional regulation and resilience. The effect size for emotional regulation was 0.483 and for the resilience was 0.522.

At the end, applying creative interpersonal problem-solving program for improving emotional regulation and resilience in mothers of gifted high school boys was discussed. It is concluded that creative problem-solving training can be used to improve resiliency and emotional management of mothers of gifted high school students.