The Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Training on Anxiety Symptoms of Caregiver Mothers of Children with Severe and Profound Intellectual Disabilities in Outbreak of COVID-19

COVID-19 has led to high prevalence of anxiety in population. this disease can cause anxiety in caregiver mothers of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotion regulation training on anxiety symptoms of caregiver mothers of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities in outbreak of COVID-19.

The research method was quasi-experimental with experimental and control groups. The statistical population of this study consisted of all Caregiver mothers of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities in Razan city (n=88). Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to collect data. In this study, 26 mothers with severe symptoms of anxiety were randomly replaced in the experimental and control groups. The emotion regulation was trained for experimental group in 8 sessions, and the control group did not receive any training during the sessions. Analysis of covariance with repeated measures was used to analyze the data.

The results showed that 72.72% of caregiver mothers of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities had moderate to severe anxiety and 60.22% had severe anxiety. Results of analysis of covariance with repeated measures showed that the emotion regulation training was effective in reducing anxiety in caregiver mothers of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities in outbreak of COVID-19 (p <0.05).

According to the results, the emotion regulation training to reduce anxiety of caregiver mothers of children with severe and profound mental disabilities is recommended.