Effectiveness of Self-Compassion-Focused Therapy on Anxiety and Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Cancer

Parents of children with cancer are at risk for mental disorders such as anxiety that affects their quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of self-compassion-focused therapy on anxiety and quality of life in parents of children with cancer.

This study was a quasi-experimental study. Sixty parents of children with a cancer diagnosis were randomly selected from patients referred to the oncology department of hospitals under the auspices of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2021 and were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The Demographic questionnaire, Beck anxiety questionnaire and quality of life questionnaire were completed by both groups before the intervention. Self-compassion-focused therapy was taught to the parents in the intervention group for 2 months. Questionnaires were completed by both groups in the post-test and follow-up stages. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS software version 21.

The results of the present study showed that before the intervention, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean scores of anxiety and quality of life in the experimental and control groups (p-value <0.05). Immediately after the intervention and three subsequent follow-ups, a statistically significant difference was observed in the mean scores of anxiety in the two groups (p-value <0.05. (Discussion and

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the treatment of self-centered compassion in parents with children with cancer who have high anxiety is highly educable and will reduce anxiety and increase their quality of life.