Iran Journal of Nursing

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Shakeri F, Inanloo M, Haghani H. The Effect of Life Skills Training on Parental Stress of Women Health Volunteers with Children Aged Less than Seven Years. IJN 2021; 33 (128) :84-99
URL: http://ijn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3379-en.html

Background & Aims: One of the most important events in life is accepting the parental role which causes a lot of stress regarding its responsibilities and expectations. Parental stress is caused by a perceived mismatch between parental responsibilities and personal resources such as some of the child characteristics including poor response, behavioral problems, child adjustment, as well as specific parental characteristics such as flexibility, anxiety, and life skills deficits in interaction with the child characteristics. High levels of parental stress disrupt parent-child interactions and even, low levels of parental stress and parental inefficiency are linearly related, making parents, especially mothers, more captious, stricter, and more sensitive, which in turn leads to behavioral problems and emotional development disorders in their children. Since the emotional and psychological state of the parents is influential during the childhood of their children, there is a need for appropriate methods to overcome this stress. Numerous studies have shown that teaching life skills to parents is one of the most effective and efficient therapeutic methods with a positive and significant effect on reducing parental stress and children's stress, and the most appropriate way to develop skills and change behavior is to hold life skills workshops. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine the effect of life skills training on parental stress in women health volunteers with children under 7 years old in Abhar city.
Materials & Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a control-experimental group that investigated the effect of life skills on the parental stress of women health volunteers with children under 7 years old in Abhar in 2019. For this purpose, 60 women health volunteers with children under 7 years old were selected through convenience sampling method from two comprehensive health care centers in Abhar. Having introduced the research objectives, volunteers who met the inclusion criteria were selected and completed the consent form. The personal information form asked about the age of the volunteers, their husbands and children, the number of children, the occupation and income of their husbands, their education level, their husbands' education level, and the duration of their cooperation with the relevant centers. The Parenting Stress Index- Short Form (SF-PSI), with 36 questions on a 5-point Likert scale with a score of 1-5, and three sets of 12 questions about three subscales of parental distress, parent-child dysfunctional interactions, and difficult child were given to them. A total score greater than 90 indicates high parental stress. The experimental group participants were divided into two groups of 15 to undergo treatment for 5 sessions. The treatment included group life skills training programs such as self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-confidence skills, effective communication skills and bravery, emotion and anger control skills, stress management skills, and problem-solving skills. Content validity of the educational materials was approved by psychiatric nursing professors. The educational materials were presented in the form of questions and answers, lectures, role-play, and practical and home exercises for three weeks, and two 105 minute sessions per week. However, the control group did not receive any treatment and in the end, both groups took the post-test five weeks after the intervention. The educational package was delivered to both groups. This study is extracted from a research project approved by Iran University of Medical Sciences and the ethical policy of the university was observed during the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were first calculated and then the hypotheses were analyzed using the statistical methods of independent t-test, ANCOVA, and Mann-Whitney test at a significant level of P≤0.01. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16 and statistical tests.
Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age, their education level, their husbands' education level, income, the number of children, their age and sex, and duration of cooperation. The mean scores of parental stress in the pre-test were 109.13 ± 3.1 and 114.3 ± 16.39 for the control and the experimental group respectively. The mean scores of parental stress in the post-test (five weeks after the intervention) were 97.6 ± 14.52 and 89.8 ± 17.83 for the control and experimental groups respectively, indicating a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P≤0.001). The results showed that life skills training reduced parental stress in the experimental group. The parental anxiety subscale in the experimental group decreased from 40.1 ± 7.36 to 28.8 ± 3.24. The subscales of the parent-child interaction decreased from 33.5 ± 7.09 to 27.93 ± 3.88, while decreasing from 40.7 ± 5.37 to 33.3 ± 1.65 in the difficult child. After treatment, the mean scores of parental stress and parental anxiety of the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group, indicating less stress of this group compared to the control group (P<0.001).
Conclusion: The results showed that the life skills training program in women health volunteers reduces the mean scores of parental stress and stress subscales. Therefore, teaching life skills to parents is necessary, and it is recommended that the necessity of life skills training become a culture among the public, and the authorities and managers of health care pay more attention to holding life skills training workshops for parents.