The Effectiveness of Behavioral Activation on Depression, Social Avoidance, and Mental Rumination of Mothers of Children With Cerebral Palsy in Ilam City, Iran

Mothers are more responsible for raising their children and are usually the main caregivers of disabled children. This research aims to determine the effectiveness of behavioral activation therapy on depression, mental rumination, and social avoidance in mothers of children with cerebral palsy. 

This study was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with a control group. The statistical population included all mothers of children with cerebral palsy in Ilam City, Iran in 2022. The sample size included 40 mothers who were referred to occupational therapy centers from the mentioned population who were selected by convenient sampling method and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Behavioral activation therapy was given to the experimental group for 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week. Data were collected using the Beck depression inventory-second edition (BDI-II), rumination questionnaire, and social phobia questionnaire in two stages before the intervention and after the intervention. In this research, covariance analysis was used to analyze data.

The results of the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that behavioral activation therapy has a significant effect on reducing symptoms of depression (P≤0.001), rumination (P≤0.001), and social avoidance and its components (P<0.05) except for fear (P>0.05).

Behavioral activation therapy has a positive and significant effect at the 0.05 level in improving depression symptoms and reducing rumination and social avoidance in the subjects of the present study. This study proposed that behavioral activation therapy is a suitable treatment for depression, rumination, and social avoidance and its components, which can be tested in future research.