The Effectiveness of Happiness Training on Reducing Stress in the Kermanshah Older Women

Stress is very commonin theelderly because ofthe weaknesses anddisabilities. The present studywas conductedto investigate theeffectiveness ofhappiness training on reducing stressin the Kermanshah older women.The studywas asemi-experimental design withpre-posttestdesign with control group. The study population was all elderly centers in Kermanshah city, that randomly choose a center and between elders of center twenty-two elderlywomen (M=64.4, SD=3.24) were selected based ontheavailable sampling, and assigned tothe experimental and control groups, randomly. The instruments usedwere theCoudron Stress Scale (1999, as cited in Ganji, 2001), and thedemographic questionnaire. Ten sessionsof happiness training with Matthews method (1948, translated by Afzalirad, 2005) was administeredto experimental group as biweekly; While thecontrol groupdid not receivetheintervention.Atthe end of theintervention,both groupswere evaluated again bythetest. The data wereanalyzedusinganalysis ofcovariance. The datashowed happiness trainingwas effective on reducingstress forolder women in experimental group (P<0/001).According to theeffectiveness ofhappiness training on reducingstressin older women, apparentlycan be usedtohappiness trainingfor reducing stressin older women.