The effect of cognitive emotion regulation training given to mothers whose children are in intensive care

The purpose of this study; is to examine the effect of cognitive emotion regulation training given to mothers whose children are in intensive care. The study group of the research was conducted at Izmir Democracy University Buca Seyfi Demirsoy Education and Research Hospital between 3 October 2022 and 1 September 2023. The study consisted of 64 patient relatives who were followed up in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the. It was conducted in a randomized controlled trial type, with 32 mothers as the control group and 32 mothers as the intervention group. In the first 10 minutes of the child's admission to the intensive care unit, mothers were invited to the interview room and were given the Sociodemographic Data Collection Form and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory STAI-I, II respectively, and were expected to fill them out. After filling out the forms, the scores she received from the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale sub-dimensions were calculated immediately and the maladaptive strategies she used were determined. Then, the information phase started. The informational interview was held for an average of 45 (±5) minutes for all mothers. In this way, information was provided within the first hour of the child's admission to intensive care. 1 hour after the information, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale and the State Anxiety Scale STAI-I were re-administered to the mothers. At this stage, the Trait Anxiety Scale STAI-II was not repeated due to the scope of use of the scale. Data were evaluated using Kolmogorov Smirnov test, Shapiro Wilks test, Student-t test, Paired Sample-t test, Chi-Square test with Yates Correction, analyses. It was concluded that after the information given to the mothers, the use of maladaptive strategies decreased and the State Anxiety scores decreased (p<0,001; p<0,01). At the same time, the use of adaptive strategies has also been observed to increase. In line with the results, informing mothers about cognitive emotion regulation strategies can be transformed into a more comprehensive training program and contribute to the clinic and literature.