The Effect of Incredible Years Program Training on Behavioral Emotion Regulation in Mothers of Children with Autism

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MA student in Psychology and Education of People with Special Needs, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Education of People with Special Needs, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

10.22034/jmpr.2024.60170.6038

Abstract

Mothers of children with autism face special challenges in regulating emotions and interacting with their children and need training and planning. The current research aimed to determine the effectiveness of incredible years program on behavioral emotion regulation in mothers of children with autism. The research was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and a control group. The statistical population of the study included all mothers of children with autism in Shahreza in Isfahan in the academic year 2020-2021. The sample size was 20 mothers who were selected by convenience sampling method from rehabilitation center of children with autism. Each group consist of 10 individuals. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. All subjects completed the behavioral emotion regulation questionnaire (Kraaij and Garnefski, 2019) as a pre-test. The experimental group was trained with incredible years program for 12 sessions, but the control group used the center common program. After that, both groups participated in a post-test. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed that incredible years program has a significant effect on the seeking distraction (Z=-2.26, P=0.023), withdrawing (Z=-2.68, P=0.007), actively approaching (Z=-4.00, P=0.001) and seeking social support (Z=-3.4, P=0.001) for behavioral emotion regulation of mothers of children with autism. The results indicated that the incredible years program, focusing on parent-child interaction, self-efficacy and recognition of one’s own and others’ emotions, can be used as a useful and effective method to improve the behavioral emotion regulation of mothers of children with autism.

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