The Effect of Cognitive-Emotional Intervention on Growth and Posttraumatic Stress in Mothers of Children With Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: To diminish the negative impact and improve the positive outcomes on the parents of children with cancer, it is crucial to attend to their problems. This is especially significant in the case of mothers as the main caregivers. The present study aimed at evaluating the efficiency of cognitive-emotional intervention on growth and posttraumatic stress in mothers of children with cancer hospitalized in the chemotherapy ward. Procedure: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 100 mothers of children with cancer who presented to the chemotherapy ward of a hospital located in southeastern Iran in 2018. The eligible mothers were chosen and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Mothers in the intervention group as a whole received 5 sessions of cognitive-emotional intervention. The sessions were held twice a week, each lasting 60 to 90 minutes. Sixteen weeks after the intervention, posttest data were collected through the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. The data were then analyzed using SPSS 21 utilizing statistical tests including independent and paired t tests, chi(2), and covariance analysis. Results: The results show that the mean value of posttraumatic stress in mothers of children with cancer after cognitive-emotional training in the intervention group (25.92 +/- 5.29) was significantly lower than that in the control group (44.94 +/- 11.92; P=0.0001). Moreover, in the posttest, the mean value of posttraumatic growth in the intervention group (92.06 +/- 5.50) was significantly more than that in the control group (62.98 +/- 15.08; P=0.0001). Conclusions: Alleviating posttraumatic stress, the cognitive-emotional intervention proposed in this research had a significant and positive impact on posttraumatic growth in mothers of children diagnosed with cancer. Therefore, implementing this intervention in the chemotherapy department and throughout the course of the children's treatment is highly recommended for their caregivers, especially mothers of children diagnosed with cancer.