Effectiveness of Pennsylvania Prevention Program and Program based in Islamic Criteria on Marital Satisfaction of Mothers with an autistic child

Introduction: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the classical Pennsylvania prevention program and program based on Iranian-Islamic criteria on the marital satisfaction of mothers with an autisticchild. Method: 45 volunteers have been selected through convenience sampling among mothers of autistic children, having medical records at the Rehabilitation Center of Shahrud, and whose disorders were approved by an expert psychologist. The samples were randomly placed into two intervention groups and a control group (each group 15 subjects). The interventions were conducted in five,2-hour sessions per weak and the participants responded ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS) before and after the interventions. Data analysis was donethrough ANCOVA and MANCOVA. Results: The results showed that three groups have a significant difference in a total score of marital satisfaction and components of satisfaction, conflict resolution, leisure time (p<0.05). The effectiveness of the Pennsylvania prevention program based on Iranian-Islamic criteria was significantly higher than the Pennsylvania Prevention program(p<0.05). Conclusion: Accordingly, Pennsylvania Prevention Program has positive effects on psychological health and improves maritalrelationships by combining a variety of approaches and techniques including psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, rational-emotional therapy, problem-solving and social skills training.