Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Group Therapy on Improving Mindfulness Components of Mothers with Children with Autism

Mothers with autistic children suffer from high levels of stress and mindfulness, consisting of several components, is effective in reducing their stress; therefore efforts to improve the components of mindfulness are essential.  Therefore, trying to improve the components of mindfulness is essential. Therefore, this study aimed to study the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction group therapy in improving the components of mindfulness in mothers with children with autism.

The present study is a semi-experimental type of research (pre-test-post-test design with a control group) and the statistical population consisted of all the mothers of students in Tehran's second education district in 2020 who were diagnosed with autism. The samples were first selected purposefully, then they were divided into two equal experimental and control groups by a simple random method. To collect data, Baer's mindfulness questionnaire was used before and after the 8-session treatment period. Finally, the data were interpreted through multivariate covariance analysis.

The findings showed that the intervention was effective with the coefficient of 0.41, 0.43, and 0.61, respectively, effective in improving the components of mindfulness, including "observation, action with consciousness and description".

Accordingly, it is possible to use the mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy group as a suitable method to improve the mindfulness of mothers with autistic children, which is not only because mothers enjoy the benefits of improving the mind.  Awareness reduces the stress caused by raising a child with autism disorder, but it can also have other effects of improving the components of mindfulness (such as reducing anxiety, consequences and psychological complications caused by raising a child with autism disorder).