Evaluating the Effect of Mindfulness Group Training on Anxiety, Stress, and Depression in Mothers with Children with Learning Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background and

Objective: The present study aimed to determine the effect of mindfulness group training on anxiety, stress, and depression in mothers with children with learning disabilities.

Materials and Methods: A clinical trial was performed with the participation of 60 mothers with children suffering from learning disabilities in 2021 in Qazvin City, Iran. The participants were divided into control and intervention groups. The data was collected using a demographic data checklist and the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) questionnaire three times (before the intervention, immediately after the sessions, and two months after the intervention). The intervention group received eight sessions of 90 minutes of mindfulness group training. The gathered data was imported into R software (version 4.1.0) and subjected to repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the paired t-test or Wilcoxon test.

Results: The results indicated that the average scores of stress, anxiety, and depression before the interventions in the mothers in both groups had no meaningful differences. This intervention could significantly increase the stress, anxiety, and depression in mothers with children with learning disabilities in two months of follow-up after the intervention in the test group, in comparison with the control group, and shows a meaningful statistical difference (P˂0.05).

Conclusion: It can be concluded that mindfulness group training is influential on the amount of stress, anxiety, and depression in mothers with children suffering from learning disabilities. Therefore, it is recommended to use the conclusions of the current investigation in designing therapeutic and educational programs to reduce the psychological distress of parents with children suffering from learning disabilities.