The effect of psychological capital training on psychological burden and emotional self-regulation styles of mothers having children with cerebral palsy

Background and aims: This study aimed to investigate the effect of psychological capital training on psychological burden and emotional self-regulation styles of mothers having children with cerebral palsy. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed in 2019 on mothers of children with cerebral palsy who had files in rehabilitation centers under the supervision of Shahrekord Welfare (n=270). Samples were selected through convenience sampling method such that 30 people were selected from among eligible people and volunteers to cooperate, and then they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. As for the intervention group, the psychological capital training program was implemented once a week for 10 sessions; but the control group was not given any intervention. Data were collected using the Psychological Burden Questionnaire designed by Zarit et al and the Emotional Self-Regulatory Questionnaire developed by Hoffman and Kashdan in three measurement steps. The collected data were analyzed by multivariate and repeated measure analysis of variance using SPSS-18 software. Results: The results showed that the mean scores of burden, secrecy, adaptability, and tolerance were significantly different in the post-test compared to the pre-test (P<0.05), as well as in the follow-up stage compared to the pre-test (P<0.001). Furthermore, the mean scores of post-test and follow-up for the experimental group increased in comparison with those for the control group in three styles of emotional regulation, and psychological burden decreased (P<0.001). Conclusion: The educational intervention of psychological capital could be adopted to increase using adaptive styles of emotional self-regulation, and to reduce psychological burden of mothers having children with cerebral palsy.