effect of a self-management empowerment program on anger and social isolation of mothers of children with cerebral palsy: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Background: cerebral palsy (cp) is the most common chronic motor disability, which can have negative impacts on social behavior of mothers as the primary caregivers. aim: to investigate the effect of an intervention program based on the self-management empowerment model on the anger and social isolation of mothers with cp children. method: this randomized controlled clinical trial was performed on 72 mothers of cp in bushehr and shiraz, iran, 2015. we employed buss-perry aggression questionnaire and the ucla loneliness scale for data collection. the intervention group received self-management empowerment in five steps and two face-to-face sessions and was followed up regularly for 1.5 months. thereafter, anger and social isolation of both groups were reexamined. data analysis was performed using the chi-square test, independent t-test, paired t-test, and mann-whitney test in spss, version 18. results: the mean ages of the intervention and control groups were respectively 28.1±6.09 and 28.1±5.8 years, which independent t-test showed to be homogenous (p=0.31). before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of aggression (p=0.58) and loneliness scores (p=0.93); however, after the intervention, independent t-test reflected significant inter-group differences in terms of both scores (p<0.001). implications for practice: the designed empowerment program could reduce the anger of mothers of cp children and serve as a framework for empowering these mothers in healthcare and rehabilitation centers. the efficacy of the program in alleviating the social isolation of these mothers requires further research.