Cognitive-Existential Group Therapy for Parents of Children with Cancer

Objectives: this study used a quasi-experimental method in the pretest-posttest to evaluate the efficacyof cognitive-existential group therapy on hopefulness in parents of children with cancer.method: thirty parents (24 to 54 years old) of children with cancer were divided randomly intoexperimental and control groups. both groups were assessed with miller hope scale (1988), as pre-test.the experimental group received cognitive-existential group therapy in 12 sessions, each lasting 90minutes (2 sessions per week), but no psychological intervention was applied to the control group. at theend of the intervention, both groups were reassessed through post-test. data were analyzed by spssthrough analysis of covariance.results: significant differences in hopefulness between the two groups (p < 0.01) were observed in favorof the experimental group.conclusion: cognitive-existential group therapy can be effective in increasing hopefulness in parents ofchildren with cancer.