Journal of Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences

Background & Aim: The birth of mentally retarded children in families causes stress and creates problems especially for mothers. Positive parenting is one of the educational methods doe parents which are recommended for mothers who have children with behavioral and emotional disorders. This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of positive parenting program in parental stress and self-efficacy of mothers and behavioral problems of students with educable mental retardation.

Methods: In this empirical study, 30 mothers of boy students with mental retardation were selected through multistage random sampling and were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received positive parenting Program (Triple-P) of Sanders (1993) during 8 weeks. The data collection tools were parental stress questionnaire, Parental Self Agency Measure and the Child Behavior Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using multivariate covariance and univariate covariance.

Results: The study results showed that Triple-P has an impact on behavioral problems of students and parental stress as well as on the self-efficacy of mothers with educable mentally retarded children. (P˂0.001, F=38.712, coefficient Wilks' Lambda= 0.119, size effect=0.881).

Conclusion: Triple-P is effective on parental stress and self-efficacy of mothers and also behavioral problems of educable mentally retarded children. Thus, the designing and implementation of educational sessions is recommended for parents.