The efficacy of education of psychological capital components on coping strategies and parent-child interaction in mothers of children with intellectual disability

Research shows that mothers with children of intellectual disabilities use ineffective coping strategies that have negative effects on the quality of their interactions. Interventions are needed to equip mothers in this field. There is a research gap regarding the effectiveness of teaching psychological capital components on coping strategies and parent-child interaction in this category of mothers.

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the efficacy of teaching psychological capital components on coping strategies and parent-child interaction in mothers with children with intellectual disabilities.

The method of the current research was semi-experimental, with a pre-test and post-test with a control group with a one-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research is made up of mothers with daughters with intellectual disabilities whose children were studying in exceptional primary girls' schools in Tehran in the academic year 1401-1400. 40 mothers were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (20 experimental and 20 control). The tools used in this research were coping strategies questionnaires (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) and parent-child interaction (Pianta, 1994). The experimental group was exposed to 16 training sessions. Data were analyzed using the multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance.

The results of the research showed that the post-test scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group in the variables of problem-oriented coping strategies and parent-child interaction also there has been a decrease in emotion-oriented coping strategy (p<0.01). The effects of the program in the follow-up phase were stable on problem-oriented coping strategies and parent-child interaction and there has been a significant decrease in the emotion-oriented coping strategy.

Considering the effectiveness of the psychological capital component training program on coping strategies and improving parent-child interaction in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities, it is necessary to pay attention to the individual empowerment of mothers and strengthen their psychological resources.