The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on dysfunctional attitudes and psychological helplessness of mothers of children with special needs

Mirzaee, Fatemeh; Khanjani Veshki, Sahar Khanjani Veshki

doi:10.22059/japr.2025.377146.644933

The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on dysfunctional attitudes and psychological helplessness of mothers of children with special needs

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Fatemeh Mirzaee ¹

Sahar Khanjani Veshki Khanjani Veshki ²

¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Arak University, Arak, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Humanities, Arak University, Arak, Iran.

10.22059/japr.2025.377146.644933

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating cognitive behavioral therapy on ineffective attitudes and psychological helplessness of mothers of mentally retarded children. The research method was quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the research included all mothers with intellectually disabled children who were students in exceptional schools in Arak city in 2022. The sample selection was done by G-Power software, firstly, in the form of available sampling among mentally retarded schools in Arak city, and then 32 mothers of these children were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to two groups. Both groups initially completed the Weizman and Beck dysfunctional attitudes questionnaire (DAS) and Besharat mental health questionnaire (MHI) to measure psychological helplessness. Then the experimental group was trained for 9 sessions of 90 minutes according to Wildermut's cognitive behavioral protocol (2008). Research data were analyzed through multivariate analysis of covariance (MONKOVA). The findings of the research showed that cognitive behavioral therapy has caused a significant reduction of ineffective attitudes and psychological helplessness in mothers of mentally retarded children compared to the control group. Therefore, this method can be used to improve the mental health of mothers,

Keywords

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Dysfunctional Attitudes

Mothers of Mentally Retarded Children

Psychological Helplessness