Document Type : Original Article
Researchers
1 phd student
2 Associate Professor. Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran.
4 Associate Professor.Department of Assessment and Measurement, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
Ministerial Ethics Committee
The aim of the present study is to develop and validate an intervention program based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and to examine its effectiveness on post-traumatic growth, stigma, and caregiving burden in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study employs a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, combining qualitative (exploratory) and quantitative (quasi-experimental) approaches. In the qualitative phase phenomenological approach is used. In the quantitative phase, after developing and internally validating the educational program, a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test-post-test and a control group will be implemented.
The statistical population consists of all mothers of children with ASD in Rabat Karim city whose children are receiving education and rehabilitation services at intervention and rehabilitation centers. Using a convenience sampling method, 30 mothers of children with ASD will be selected based on inclusion criteria and randomly assigned to two groups: experimental and control (15 participants per group). The experimental group will receive the designed program, while the control group will remain on a waiting list. The research instruments include the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996), the Caregiving Burden Questionnaire (Novak & Guest, 1989), and the Stigma Questionnaire (Rezaei Dehnavi, 2019).
To adhere to ethical considerations, the developed program will be delivered to the control group in two sessions at the end of the study. The research findings will be analyzed using both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods.