The Effect of Supportive and Cognitive- Behavior Group Therapy on Mental Health and Irrational Believes of Mothers of Autistic Children

Autistic disorder is one of the developmental pervasive disorders that is characterized with impairment in social interaction, delayed development in communication skills and restricted relational model. Due to various problems of these children, their families, especially their mothers are under stress. Therefore, family education such as training of coping strategies, problem solving and change of irrational believes is mandatory This study is aimed to evaluate the effect of cognitive- behavior and supportive therapy on mental health and irrational believes of mothers of autistic children.Subjects and The sample of this research consists of twenty mothers of autistic children. Subjects were placed randomly in control and experimental groups. Measurements were mental health inventory and Jones irrational believes questionnaire. The Experimental group was participated in 10 sessions of group therapy. The result of covariance analysis showed that cognitive- behavior and supportive group therapy improved mental health scores of experimental group in post-test stage (p<0/001). Scores of irrational believes were not significantly different. Cognitive- behavior and supportive intervention could be effective in improving mental health of mothers of autistic children.