The Effectiveness of Mindful Self-Compassion on Thinking Rumination and Social Anxiety of Mothers of Children with Autism

The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of mindful self-compassion training on rumination and social anxiety of mothers with autistic children. The current research was a semi-experimental type with a pre-test, post-test, and control group with a one-month follow-up. The statistical population of this research included mothers with autistic children who were referred to Anwar Aftab Kotsar Jamil Rehabilitation Center in Qom City in 1400. 30 mothers who met the criteria to enter the research (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group) were selected by purposive sampling. Mindful self-compassion training sessions were held for the experimental group for 8 sessions, once a week, and the control group was placed on the waiting list for training. The tools used included Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (1987, LSAS) and Nolen Hoeksma and Marlow's Ruminative Responses Scale (1993, RRS). The collected data were analyzed by repeated measure analysis of variance. The results showed that mindful self-compassion training is effective in reducing rumination and social anxiety of mothers with autistic children (P <0.05). Also, mindful self-compassion training has continued to reduce rumination and social anxiety of mothers with autistic children in the follow-up phase (P <0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that the training in mindful self-compassion program has been effective in reducing rumination and social anxiety of mothers with autistic children.