effectiveness of group counselling based on self-development resources on depression, anxiety, and stress of mothers having children with autism

The aim of the present research was to examine the effectiveness of group counselling based on self-development resources on the depression, anxiety, and stress of mothers with children suffering from autism. the research design was quasi-experimental of pre-test/post-test type with control group. the statistical population consisted of all mothers having children suffering from autism in kermanshah city. the statistical sample consisted of 30 mothers of children with autism, who were chosen through non-randomized convenient sampling. randomly, 15 mothers were assigned to the intervention and 15 mothers to the control group. to measure the extent of anxiety, stress, and depression of mothers, lovibond dass-21 questionnaire (1995) was used. the intervention group received training for 10 sessions (once a week, each session: 90 minutes) on group counselling based on self-development resources, while the control group was placed in the waiting list for intervention. the data were analyzed by univariate covariance analysis using spss 22. the findings obtained from data analysis based on univariate covariance analysis indicated that group counseling based on self-development resources had a significant effect on reducing the extent of anxiety, depression, and stress of mothers having children with autism (p<.001), where the extent of impact on depression, anxiety, and stress was as follows respectively: .32, .28, and .19. according to the results, group counselling based on self-development resources can be applied as a psychological interventional approach for reducing the level of anxiety, depression, and stress of mothers having children with autism.