Abstract

Introduction: Children with cancer expose families, especially mothers, to numerous challenges and cause parents to suffer from a lot of stress. In many cases, the pressures arising from caring for children with cancer tend to grow so intensely that can affect the quality of life of the parents.

Objective: This study aims to analyze the impact of Stress Management Training on improving the quality of life of the mothers with leukemic children.

Materials and Methods: The present study is an experimental research with a pre-test/post-test control group design. The statistical population of the study comprised of all mothers of leukemic children between 4 and 6 years of age living in Rasht, Iran, in the school year 2014-2015. 30 mothers with the inclusion criteria were randomly selected as the sample and were randomly placed into experimental and control groups. The researchers administered the short-form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire (Warosherbon, 1992) among the two groups at both pre-test and post-test stages. The experimental group received ten 70-minute sessions of Stress Management Training, whereas the control group did not receive any such an intervention.

Results: Data analysis indicates a significant difference between the experimental and the control group in terms of mean scores of life quality (p<0.01). Thus, Stress Management Training has improved the quality of life of the experimental group.

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that, besides instrumental and informational empowerment strategies such as the funding of treatment and education, mothers of children with cancer also need emotional support and psychological intervention in order to enjoy improvement in quality of life.