Dr Zeinab Mohammadzadeh, Dr Afsaneh Ghanbari Panah, Dr Mojgan Mardanirad, Dr Yalda Delgoshaei,
Volume 12, Issue 46 (9-2023)
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of education based on acceptance and commitment on parenting stress and cognitive flexibility of parents with preschool children. The design of the current research was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group. The statistical method used to analyze the data was repeated measurement variance analysis (mixed design). 120 mothers who referred to the continuity center of Sari Municipality in 2018 were the research population. Two questionnaires of cognitive flexibility (Dennis and Vander Wall, 2010), parental stress questionnaire (Abidin, 1995) were the tools used in this research. In the first stage, among 60 mothers who received scores of 25-50% low in the questionnaires, 30 people were selected and were completely randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Educational classes based on acceptance and commitment were held in 8 sessions and the control group participated in classes with different content in 8 sessions. The time and place of the classes were on Mondays and Wednesdays in the Sari Municipality Continuity Hall. The results showed that education based on acceptance and commitment increases cognitive flexibility (effect size in time, 0.653) and (effect size in group, 0.331) and reduces parenting stress (effect size in time, 0.803) and (the effect size in the group is 0.416). It is concluded that education based on acceptance and commitment increases cognitive flexibility and reduces parenting stress of parents with preschool children. It is suggested to use the teaching protocol based on acceptance and commitment in schools, clinics related to education in the form of educational workshops with the aim of improving parenting styles and increasing children's adaptation.