The effect of reality therapy on the hope of mothers of children with cancer

Mothers of children are exposed to crises in understanding their childchr('39')s illness and condition that affect family functioning and lifestyle and require intervention. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of reality therapy on hope in mothers of children with cancer.

The present study is a quasi-experimental study with two groups designing pre and post-test with a control group that that was done in 2019. The sample was 70 mothers of children with cancer admitted to the oncology ward of Fatemeh Masoumeh Hospital in Qom that was selected based on inclusion criteria and available sampling and randomly divided into intervention and control groups using the envelope method. The intervention group participated in 8 sessions of group training focused on reality therapy in 60-minute and the control group received routine care. The data collection tools were a demographic and Miller Hope Questionnaire which was completed in two groups before and after the intervention.

The mean score of hope before training was 71.58 ±27.07 in the intervention group and 72.37 ±18.86 in the control group that there was no significant difference (P = 0.89). After training, the mean score of hope in the intervention group was 150.28 ±12.93 and in the control group, it was 70.32 ± 19.89. Findings showed that after reality therapy, the expectation of mothers was significantly different in the intervention and control groups (P <0.001).

In this study, reality therapy was effective in the hope of mothers of children with cancer. Therefore, it is suggested that this intervention be considered in support of family, especially mothers, given the importance of family hope in the process of child treatment and family life process.