Comparing the effecacy of psychological capital and mindfulness training on the psychological well-being of female heads of households

The number of female heads of the household has increased due to the extensive social and demographic changes of the Iranian society in recent years. Some previous studies have shown that these women have low psychological well-being. The positive point is that previous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of interventions based on psychological capital and mindfulness on the psychological well-being of female heads of households, However, no specific research comparing the effecacy of two educational interventions of psychological capital and mindfulness on the psychological well-being of female heads of households was found.

The present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effecacy of training based on psychological capital and mindfulness on the psychological well-being of female heads of households.

The method of this research was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included all female heads of households in Shiraz city who had a file in the Shiraz city welfare office and at the same time their children were studying in schools covered by the 2nd district education office of Shiraz city in 2022-2023. Among the female heads of households in the statistical community, 45 women were selected as available and then randomly divided into three groups of 15 including two experimental groups (training based on psychological capital and treatment based on mindfulness) and a control group. The research tool included psychological well-being questionnaire (Ryff, 1989). The first and second experimental groups were subjected to training based on psychological capital (Luthans, 2007) and mindfulness-based therapy (Baer et al., 2006) during 8 90-minute sessions, But the members of the control group did not receive any intervention. Data analysis was done using univariate covariance analysis and SPSS-24 software.

The findings indicated that training based on psychological capital and treatment based on mindfulness are both equally effective in improving the psychological well-being of female heads of households (P=0.976).

According to the results obtained in the present study, it seems that psychologists and counselors can use the method of training based on psychological capital and mindfulness therapy in order to improve the health and increase the psychological well-being of women heads of households