The effect of cognitive behavioral therapy-based group counseling on coping with negative emotions in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities

This study examined the effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy based group work on the denial, guilt, shame, and anger in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities were examined. A quasi-experimental design with experimental-control group, pre-test, post-test, and follow-up measures was used in the study. The Beck Depression Scale, Guilt and Shame Scale, State-Trait Anger Scale (STAS), and Coping Attitudes Rating Scale (COPE) were used in the study. The participants of the study were mothers with children who attended special education schools or special classes affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Istanbul and who were diagnosed with intellectual disability according to the reports of the disability medical board reports. Measurement tools were distributed to a total of 324 mothers to determine the participants. Seventy-two participants who scored twenty-five or more points on the Beck Depression Inventory and 31 who gave incomplete answers and had extreme scores were excluded from the study. A total of 221 participants who scored above the arithmetic mean of the measures were selected for inclusion in the study. Forty-five participants were selected by simple randomization. Fifteen participants in each group were randomly assigned to the experimental, encounter, and control groups. However, ten participants were lost due to various reasons, and the study was completed with a total of thirty-five participants. The experimental group recevied 13 sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy based group work, while the interaction group received unstructured group sessions for once a week for an hour and a half. No treatment was applied to the control group. One-way ANOVA for Mixed Designs was used to analyze the research data. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the group work had a significant effect on the depression levels of the mothers with mentally handicapped children who were members of the experimental group and the interaction group. According to the results of the analysis, there was a statistically significant change in the feelings of guilt, shame, and anger of the participants in the experimental group after the study. This change was maintained in subsequent follow-up studies. As a result of the group work with the interaction group, it was found that there was only a statistically significant change in guilt. However, the interaction group study had no effect on the scores for anger, denial and shame. When the scores of the control group were analyzed, it was found that there was no significant change in the scores regarding the dependent variables of the study.