Effectiveness of the Quality of Life Improvement Program for Adolescents with Visual Impairment on their Adjustment and Mental Health

Visual deprivation as one of the primary senses may cause limitations in the personal aspects and interpersonal interactions of the individual. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the quality of life improvement program based on the group cognitive-behavioral approach on adjustment and mental health of adolescents with visual impairment. The type of study was quasi-experimental with pre and post- test utilizing control group and follow-up. Using available sampling, tenth and eleventh grade students with visual impairment in Mohebi School, in Tehran were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (twenty students each included boarding and daily attending individuals). All students responded to Bell Adjustment Questionnaire (BAI, Bell, 1961) and Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28, Besharat, 2009), then, the experimental group received ten sessions of the intervention while the control group did not receive training. The results of the multivariate analysis of covariance showed that adjustment and mental health of the experimental group significantly increased after the intervention program. Therefore, it can be concluded that this program could help with the adjustment and mental health of adolescents with visual impairment.