The effect of psychoeducation program of perfectionism on mother's perfectionism level and children's anxiety level

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-based Perfectionism Psycho-educational Program prepared for mothers on the level of perfectionism of mothers and anxiety levels of children aged 9-12 years. The research was conducted with mothers and their children who were educated in an official primary school during the 2016-2017 academic year. In the research, 2 X 3 experimental design (experiment-control-pretest-posttest-follow up test) has been used. In order to determine the experimental and control groups, "The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Oral, 1999)" was applied 417 mothers and the "Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (Özusta, 1993)" was applied their children. As a result of the measurement, findings were analyzed; mothers and children who got scores above the average were matched. The experimental group and control group which each consisted of 14 participants were formed impartially but 2 participants in the experimental group could not complete their sessions. During the implementation phase, eight sessions of "Perfectionism Psycho-Education Program" were conducted with the mothers in the experimental group one day in a week apart from the preliminary interview. No studies were conducted with the mothers in the control group. The mother and children who were included in the study a week after the research carried out by the experimental group were applied a final test. Besides, in order to assess the permanence of the effect of the applied program, the same group was applied a follow up test after 3 months. As a result of this study, it has been found that the Perfectionism Psycho-educational Program has a significant effect on the perfectionism sub-dimensions of the mothers (self-oriented perfectionism, and other-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism) and total score level and this acquired effect retained its permanence in the follow-up test performed 3 months later. In terms of children, there was no significant difference in the anxiety levels of the children whose mothers were in the experimental group compared to the anxiety levels of the children whose mothers were in the control group, whereas in the follow-up test performed after 3 months, the anxiety score of the children whose mothers were in the experimental group was significantly lower than the anxiety score of the children whose mothers were in the control group. The results were discussed with the literature and proposals were made to the applicants of the program and to researchers working in the same field.