Abstract
The current study has been conducted to get the amount of effectiveness of the compassion-based approach on alexithymia and the sense of coherence in mothers with intellectually disabled children. It has been in progress for two months with a semi-experimental design using pre-test and post-test, accompanied by a control group. The whole population of the study involved 56 mothers having intellectually disabled children, who registered them in the Marand Well-being Organization Office from 2017 to 2022, of whom 30 had the required condition to get into the research. The study used a purposeful method for choosing the samples and put them randomly in two experimental and control groups. Compassion-based approach training was conducted in eight sessions for the experimental group while the control group received nothing. The data collected were analyzed and collected through alexithymia and the sense of coherence scales and were undergone the SPSS-22 software for the latter analysis and variance calculations. According to the results obtained compassion-based approach therapy for alexithymia and sense of coherence had a meaningful effect (p≤0/05). The follow-up stage has also demonstrated that the effect of compassion-based treatment on alexithymia and the sense of coherent sense of mothers with intellectually disabled children has been stable. Based on the results, psychology and counseling experts could use compassion-based training programs for alexithymia reduction and coherence sense enhancement of intellectually disabled children’s caregivers.
Keywords: Alexithymia, Compassion-Based Therapy, Intellectual Disability, Sense of Coherence.
 
 
Extended Abstract

Introduction

Mental intellectual (intellectual developmental disorder) is a disorder that begins during the development period and includes a person's lack of adaptive functioning and intelligence in the practical, social, and conceptual domains (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). The presence of a mentally retarded child can cause a change in the mental health and dynamics of the family system (Bahadori Khosrowshahi and Habibi-Kaleiber, 2015). When parents find out about their child's disability, they experience various forms of stress and psychological pressure, social isolation, and mental health problems (Popa, 2020). In the meantime, mothers, in the position of the main caretaker of the child, bear the biggest burden of the problem (Milani Far, 1400, p. 184). As most of the caretaking time for the child and interacting with him is usually taken by the mother, and due to the intellectual disability of the child, it has many problems in the intelligence, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development field, there are major tensions in this regard directed at the mother (Gupta and Kaur, 2010).
One of the therapeutic interventions that seem to be effective in empowering mothers with mentally retarded children is self-compassion therapy (Rostampour-Brinjistanki, Abbasi, and Mirzaeian, 2019). Compassion therapy was founded by Gilbert (2005) as the main therapy and even complementary therapy (Lucre and Clapton, 2021). This treatment is a patient-centered behavior change strategy, and its purpose is to identify and reduce a person's doubts about changing their behavior, change in lifestyle and routine, and improve the person's perception of the importance of behavior change (Hacken and Taylor, 2021).
Research Question
Is compassion-based therapy effective in increasing the sense of coherence and reducing alexithymia of mothers with mentally retarded children?
Literature Review
The results of various studies show that compassion therapy increases self-coherence adaptability, reduces negative spontaneous thoughts (Ardashirzadeh, Bakhtiarpour, Homaei, Iftikhar Saadi, 2019), increases the sense of coherence (Ghaffari, Ismali, Atashgir, Hakim-abadi, 2017; Lloyd, 2017), improves the symptoms and quality of life (Nashi et al., 2019), reduces depression and anxiety (Safarinia, Mortezai Karhrodi, Alipur, 2022), increases the tolerance of distress and reduces of guilt in mothers with physically disabled children movement (Mahmoudpour, Dehghanpour, Ejadi and Mohammadi, 2021), improves of psychological flexibility in mothers with mentally retarded children (Rostampour Brijstanaki et al., 2016) and improves of alexithymia (Ahmadi Malairi, Rahmani, Pourasghar, 2021) Tajdin, Al-Yasin, Heydari, and Davoudi, 2019).
Methodology
The current research method was a semi-experimental pre-test post-test type with a control group with a 2-month follow-up. The statistical population of the present study was mothers with mentally disabled children who had a disability file for their children in Marand Welfare Department from 2017 to 2022 (N=56). In order to select the statistical sample of the research, by referring to the Marand Welfare Organization and using the purposeful sampling method, 30 mothers with mentally retarded children who have alexithymia (above 60) and sense of coherence (below 63) scales were selected and randomly replaced in the experimental and control groups.
Results
The results of multivariate tests showed that the interaction between time and group is significant for all variables. Therefore, compassion-based treatment training was effective on all variables and caused changes in alexithymia and sense of coherence (P<0.05). The obtained results showed that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores in the two variables of emotional ataxia and sense of coherence (P<0.001). In other words, the effect of compassion-based intervention on research variables is confirmed. Also, there is a significant difference between pre-test and follow-up scores in both variables (P<0.001). In other words, the effect of time is confirmed. Meanwhile, no significant difference was observed between the post-test and follow-up scores in the two variables of alexithymia and the sense of coherence (P<0.05).
           
Table 1. Benferoni test to investigate the effectiveness of compassion-based therapy for research variables over time




Comparison


Alexithymia


sense of coherence




Mean difference


standard error


Significance level


mean difference


standard error


Significance level






Pre-test post-test


16.24


1.82


0.001


8.51


1.37


0.001




Post-test follow-up


0.97


1.26


0.07


0.48


1.18


0.69




Pre-test follow-up


6.42


2.11


0.001


8.93


1.42


0.001




Discussion
The present study was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of the compassion-based approach on emotional ataxia and sense of coherence in mothers with intellectually disabled children. Based on the obtained results, compassion-based therapy reduced alexithymia in mothers with mentally retarded children, which is in agreement with the results of some studies (Ahmadi Malairi et al., 2021; Tajdin et al., 2019; Marsh, Chan, and McBeth, 2018; Kiel and Pidgon, 2017). Another finding of the research was that compassion-based therapy is effective in increasing the sense of coherence of mothers with mentally disabled children. The result obtained in accordance with the research results of Aghalar and Akrami (2021), Ardeshirzadeh et al. (2019), Narimani and Eyni (2019), Li, Liu, Han, Zhu, and Wang (2017), and Lloyd (2017).
Conclusion
The present study showed that the participants had clinically significant improvement in each scale and it seems that the intervention based on compassion was effective. The results of the follow-up test were not significantly different from the final test, and the therapeutic method based on compassion had a lasting effect on increasing the sense of coherence and reducing alexithymia.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all those who participated in this study.