The effect of spiritual intervention on self-esteem and emotional adjustment of mothers with children with cancer

Cancer causes a decrease in self-esteem and psychological adjustment in mothers with children with cancer. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of spiritual intervention on self-esteem and emotional adjustment of mothers with children with cancer.

In this semi-experimental research, 90 mothers with children with cancer who met the inclusion criteria were selected by available sampling method and divided into two intervention groups (45 people) and control (45 people) using random allocation. Spiritual intervention was conducted in the form of 6 training sessions for 45 minutes, focusing on spiritual issues, for the mothers of the intervention group, but no intervention was done for the patients of the control group. Rosenberg's standard self-esteem questionnaire and Rabiot's emotional adjustment questionnaire were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using spss software version 23 and paired t-tests and analysis of covariance.

The results showed that the average score of self-esteem in both intervention and control groups before and after the test did not show a significant difference (P>0.05). However, the average emotional adjustment score in the intervention group was higher after the intervention and showed a significant difference (P<0.001), but no statistically significant difference was observed in the control group (P=0.549). The results of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the effect of the test on self-esteem in both intervention and control groups is effective (P=0.015) and emotional adjustment in people with the effect size (0.243) is effective (P<0.001).

Based on the results, it seems that the use of spiritual interventions in mothers with children with cancer as an accessible and free intervention can increase their self-esteem and emotional adjustment.