effects of calm and space parent training programs on rumination and anxiety in mothers with bully sons

Background: about one-third of children are involved in bullying in primary school. parentingstyle, as family background, plays an essential role in bullying. this study aimed to comparethe effects of the parent training programs of coaching approach behavior and leading bymodeling (calm) and supportive parenting for anxious childhood emotions (space) onrumination and anxiety in mothers with a bully son.methods: this was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test and a control groupdesign. the setting was the primary schools for boys in district 4 of tehran city, iran, in 2020.the statistical population of the research included the mothers of bully sons in one of theseschools, i.e., selected using a voluntary convenience sampling technique. in total, 60 motherswhose sons scored higher on the illinois bullying scale (ibs) were selected as the subjects andrandomly assigned into 3 groups of 20 individuals (2 intervention groups & 1 control group). thenecessary data were collected by the ibs, the ruminative response scale (rrs), and the self-anxiety scale. the intervention group subjects attended calm or space training programs for13 two-hour weekly sessions. a three-month follow-up was also performed. the collected datawere analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance (anova) in spss v. 22.results: the present study findings suggested a significant difference between the interventionand control groups in rumination (p=0.0001, f=47.54) and anxiety (p=0.0001, f=86.34) in thepost-test phase. however, no significant difference was found between calm (42.80±2.71) andspace (42.16±2.71) programs respecting the effects on rumination (p=0.36). in contrast, space(44±2.71) and calm (39.46±2.71) programs indicated significant differences concerning theirimpact on anxiety (p<0.032); the calm program presented a greater impact on reducing anxietythan space. the follow-up results indicated that the calm program presented a greater retentioneffect than space on decreasing anxiety in the studied mothers (42.76±1.02, p=0.0001).conclusion: the obtained data revealed that the calm and space programs were effectivein reducing maternal rumination and anxiety. however, calm was more effective than spacein reducing maternal anxiety. school counselors, mental health professionals, psychiatric nurses,and school health nurses are suggested to apply the study findings.