The Effectiveness of strategic solution oriented Therapy, The Meditation Technique and Meta Cognitive Therapy on Mind wandering and Rumination among mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Introduction: Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed significant fatigue and loss in their quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of strategic solution oriented therapy, the meditation technique and meta cognitive therapy on mind wandering and rumination among mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder.Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental and used a pre-test post-test design with a control group. The statistical sample included all mothers of children with ASD who were studying at special children's training centers in the south of Tehran in 2019, were selected using purposive sampling and randomly divided into three experimental groups (strategic solution oriented therapy (n=14), the meditation technique (n=14), meta cognitive therapy (n=14), and one control group. Each of the experimental groups was under treatment for 1.5-hour while the control group was not offered any therapy. The subjects were assessed before and after treatment using Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ), and Rumination Response Scale (RRS). All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS ver. 25. Findings: The majority of mothers (32.1%) were between 25 and 30 years of age and the higher education degree of mothers (44.6%) was a diploma. The results showed that the solution-oriented strategic method, meditation, and metacognitive can significantly decrease the mind wandering and rumination in the mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder (P <0.05), since solution-oriented strategic showed higher effects than meditation and metacognitive approach. Conclusion: According to the test results, the solution-oriented strategic method, meditation method, and metacognitive method had the most impact in reducing mind wandering, respectively.