مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Comparison of Effectiveness of Mindfulness and Happiness Training in Promoting Parent-Child Interaction Case Study: Mothers of Anxious Preschool Children in Shahrekord city, Southwest of Iran, 2018

Author/Authors :

Fereydooni ، Arjang Department of Psychology - Islamic Azad University, Khuzestan Science and Research Branch , Heidari ، Alireza Department of Psychology - Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch , Eftekhar Saadi ، Zahra Department of Psychology - Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch , Ehteshamzadeh ، Parvin Department of Psychology - Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch , Pasha ، Reza Department of Psychology - Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch

Abstract :

Introduction: Anxiety disorders are common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. It seems that the parentchild interaction affects or exacerbates the creation of anxiety disorders in children. The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness and happiness training in promoting parentchild interaction in mothers of anxious preschool children. Methods: The research method was experimental with a pretestposttest design and control group. The statistical population included all mothers of preschool anxious children in Shahrekord in 2018. Using the multistage sampling method, 45 people were selected and put randomly in the control and two experimental groups (n=15 per group). The Spence Children s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and Pianta s ChildParent Interaction Questionnaire (PACHIQ) were used for data collection. Experimental groups were put under mindfulness (eight 90minute sessions) and happiness (ten 90minute sessions) training, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Analysis of the data involved both inferential and descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation. Data analysis was conducted using oneway analysis of variance (oneway ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). SPSS version 24 was further used for analyzing the data. The significance level of research was considered to be α=0.05.Results: The results indicated that both mindfulness (p=0.0001) and happiness (p=0.0001) training increased parentchild interaction in mothers of anxious preschool children. The mean ± SD of the posttest score of parentchild interaction in the control group was 96.73 ±7.89 which was significantly different from the experimental groups (p=0.0001). Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of mindfulness (117.80 ±4.47) and happiness training (115.46 ±4.65) in promoting parentchild interaction in mothers of anxious children (p=0.599). Conclusion: Mindfulness and happiness training were effective in improving parentchild interaction in mothers of preschoolers with anxiety and could similarly change the parentchild interaction in mothers of anxious children.