The effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy in helping attitudes and work-related flow of autism child mentors

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental neurological disorder that threatens individuals’ social interactions and communication by limiting their activities and personal interests.

The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy in helping attitudes and the work-related flow of autism child mentors in the rehabilitation centers of Mazandaran, Iran.

The research method was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest, control group, follow-up design. The sample population included all male and female mentors of autistic children in the rehabilitation centers of Mazandaran in 2020. In total, 30 mentors were selected by voluntary sampling and divided into a test and a control group by simple random sampling (15 per group). Eight sessions of therapeutic intervention were provided to the study groups. Post-test and follow-ups were conducted for both groups after therapy. Data were collected using Nickell’s Helping Attitude Scale (1998) and Bakker’s Work-Related Flow Scale (2008). Data analysis covariance analysis was performed in SPSS version 25.

Findings demonstrated a significant difference between the mean scores of the test and control groups regarding helping attitudes and work-related flow among autism child mentors in the post-test stage (p<0.01). Further, compassion-focused therapy was effective in helping attitudes (0.84) and work-related flow (0.91) of autism child mentors.

Results indicate that compassion-focused therapy can potentially improve helping attitudes and the work-related flow of autism mentors in different situations. Therefore, incorporating this educational intervention into the rehabilitation agenda of these mentors appears to be quite beneficial.