The effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on parental stress of mothers with aggressive children

Aggression is one of the major problems in schools. Family members, especially mothers play an important role in the development of aggressive behaviors in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on parental stress of mothers with aggressive children. This study was an experimental research and its design was pretest-posttest with a control group. All the female students studying at the primary schools of Namin city in the year of ۲۰۱۸ (N = ۵۴۰) with their mothers were selected as the sample. Totally, ۲۱۷ students as the initial sample were selected by multi-stage clustering sampling and the aggression questionnaire was administered to them by the teachers. Finally, considering the inclusion criteria, mothers of ۴۰ aggressive students were selected as the sample and randomly assigned to one of the two groups (n=۲۰ per group). The data were collected by Shahim's Relational Aggression Scale, and Abidin's parental stress questionnaire and analyzed by ANCOVA through using SPSS-۲۰. The results revealed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was effective in decreasing the parental stress of mothers with aggressive children. Considering the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on parental stress, it can be concluded that through techniques such as paying attention to breathing and body and turning awareness here and now, mindfulness affects the cognitive system and information processing and reduces mental rumination and dysfunctional attitudes in people, and these changes can reduce parental stress.

Keywords:

Aggression , Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy , Parental Stress