Efficacy of Self-Compassion Training on the Perceived Stress and Psychological Coherence in Elderly Caregivers

The present study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of self-compassion training on the perceived stress and psychological coherence in elderly caregivers.

 Materials and Methods:

 It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group design and Two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the present study was made up of elderly caregivers of centers under the supervision of the Ministry of Health in Tehran in 2022. 36 elderly caregiver were selected through available sampling method and randomly accommodated into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received ten sessions of self-compassion training during two-and-a-half-months. The applied questionnaires in this study included Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, Mermelstein, 1983) and Psychological Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (Flensborg, Ventegodt, Merrick, 2006). The collected data were analyzed through mixed ANOVA via SPSS23 software.

Results:

 The results showed that self-compassion training has significant effect on the perceived stress and psychological coherence in elderly caregivers.

According to the findings of the study it can be concluded that self-compassion training can be used as an efficient method to decrease the perceived stress and increase psychological coherence in elderly caregivers through focusing on the method of Visualizing compassion for self and others, using creative helplessness, articulating worthwhile goals, fostering compassionate behaviors, and developing intelligent behaviors.