Effect of group reality therapy on the stress and mental burden of the mothers of the children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Having a child with neurodevelopmental disorders can influence the mothers’ cognitive, psychological and emotional processes that appropriate psychological therapies should be employed to decrease these damages. Therefore the present study was carried out aiming to investigate the effectiveness of group reality therapy on the stress and mental burden of the mothers of the children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The present study was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, and control group with two-month follow-up design. The statistical population of the present study included all the mothers of the children with neurodevelopmental disorders in the city of Isfahan in academic year 2018-19 the children of whom were studying at exceptional schools. 30 mothers of the children with neurodevelopmental disorders were selected through voluntary non-random sampling method and they were randomly replaced into experimental and control groups (each group of 15 mothers). The experimental group received ten ninety-minute sessions of group reality therapy (Glasser, 2003) during two-and-half months. The applied questionnaires of the present study included stress questionnaire (Zarite, et.al., 1996) and mental burden questionnaire (Cohen, et.al., 1988). The data were analyzed through repeated measurement ANOVA. The results showed that group reality therapy has significant effect on the stress and mental burden of the mothers of the children with neurodevelopmental disorders (p<0.001) according to the findings it can be concluded that the group reality therapy can decrease stress and mental burden of the mothers of the children with neurodevelopmental disorders.