Effectiveness of Positive Psychotherapy on Perceived Stress and the Reasons for Living in Mothers of Children with Autism

Background and purpose: Autistic children have many behavioral problems. This situation causes a lot of stress for their mothers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of positive psychotherapy on perceived stress and reasons for living in mothers of autistic children. Materials and methods: This quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design was performed in 24 mothers of autistic children attending Sari Nikandishan Children's Autism Center, 2017. The samples were randomly assigned into two groups of intervention (n=12) and control (n=12). Positive clinical program was performed for the intervention group in eight sessions of 90 minutes twice a week. Demographic characteristics were recorded and Perceived Stress Scale and The Linehan Reasons for Living Inventory were administered to collect the data. Statistical analysis was done applying Covariance analysis. Results: Before the intervention, the mean score for perceived stress was not significantly different between the experimental and control groups, but after the intervention the score deresaed singnificantly in intervention group (21.00±7.6 vs. 27.83±7.5 in control group) (P< 0.0001). The mean scores of reasons for living were not significantly different between the two groups before the intervention. But after the intervention the score showed significant increase in experimental group (177.50 ± 15.0) compared to that of the control group (159.17± 17.9) (P <0.0001). Conclusion: Positive psychotherapy seems to be effective in decreasing the mental health problems of mothers of children with autism, including high levels of perceived stress and improving their reasons for living. This intervention would also be beneficial in improving treatment results and reducing child maintenance.