The Effectiveness of Positive Psychotherapy (PPT) on Happiness among Mothers of Children with Down Syndrome (DS)

Background and Aim: mothers of children with Down syndrome face challenges in caring for their children which lead to decreased happiness among them. The present research was conducted by the aim of investigating the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on happiness among mothers of children with Down syndrome. Methods: The present research was a semi-experimental study which used a pretest-posttest with control group design. The research population included all the mothers of children with Down syndrome referring to Navide Asr comprehensive rehabilitation center in Tehran in 2017. The sample included 40 mothers (20 subjects per group) who were selected by purposeful sampling method and were assigned into experiment and control groups through random assignment method. The participants of both groups completed the Demographic Information Questionnaire and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire in pretest and posttest stages. Sessions of weekly group positive psychotherapy were held in eight 90-minute sessions for the participants of the experiment group, but the control group participants received no intervention. Univariate analysis of covariance in SPSSv20 was used for analyzing the data. Results: Mean and standard deviation of the scores of happiness among the subjects of the experiment group were 39.95 ± 6.38 in pretest which equaled 59.45 ± 9.10 in the posttest. Also, in the control group, mean and standard deviation of the scores of happiness were 40.20 ± 6.06 and 38.65 ± 7.22 in pretest and posttest stages, respectively. Results of the covariance analysis showed that, by controlling for the effect of pretest, there is a significant difference in between the mean scores of experiment and control groups suggesting the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy in increasing happiness among the experiment subjects (F = 95.76, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Results of the present research confirmed the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy in improving happiness among mothers of children with Down syndrome. The results affirm the importance of applying this intervention on psychological symptoms of mothers of children with Down syndrome and offering new perspectives in clinical interventions.