Shenakht Journal of Psychology & Psychiatry

Introduction: Emotional regulation strategies are among the effective factors in improving the quality of life and general health of mothers with children with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Aim: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotion regulation training on the quality of life of mothers of children with autism and separation anxiety disorder.
Methods: The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included all mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder and separation anxiety disorder who were referred to the private offices of psychiatrists in Borujerd city in 2019, and 30 of them were selected by convenience sampling and homogenized they were placed in two groups. The participants responded to the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (2006) for the pre-test and post-test. After 8 sessions of 120 minutes of emotion regulation training for the mothers of the experimental groups, statistical analysis of covariance and SPSS-24 software were used to analyze the data.
Results: In the present study, the average score of the family quality of life in the post-test stage in the group of mothers of children with autism and children with separation anxiety disorder was significantly higher than the mothers of the control group (P=0.001 and f=21.194). The results of the Bonferroni test and the comparison of means show that the average score of quality of life in the group of mothers with children with autism was higher than the group of mothers with children with separation anxiety disorder (P=0.012).
Conclusion: Emotion regulation training is effective on the quality of life of mothers of children with autism and separation anxiety disorder, and it is recommended for mothers with children with neurodevelopmental disorders and attachment disorders.