Abstract:

Studies that use both the development psychology and family therapies literature together are very scarce in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to prepare the psycho educational program that takes into account both the developmental psychology and family therapies literature and evaluate the effectiveness of this program. The title of the program is “Mothers Training Program”. The content of the program is made up of the topics of child development, coping with intrafamilial problems and communication skills. In this study one-group pretest-posttest quasiexperimental design was employed. Though 17 mothers participated in the group, 6 of them dropped out during the group process. The program was planned as twelve sessions that lasted approximately 2 hour each. Pretest and posttest was used to determine the effects of the group process on participants’ self-respect, coping mechanisms and communication skills. Data were analyzed with Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Singed Ranks test and t-test. Results showed that the Mothers Training Program was effective on the variables intended. Statistical significant increase was observed in the self-respect and coping skills of mothers when pre and pos test were compared. There was a relative increase in mothers satisfactions in the area of sexual relationship with their partners and life satisfaction at the end of the training program.

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