Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Health is a critical global goal that serves to meet basic human needs and improve overall quality of life. Mental health, a fundamental aspect of health, plays a crucial role in shaping individuals' well-being. Among various psychological factors, emotion regulation and social isolation are significant indicators that impact mental health, particularly for mothers of children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These mothers face heightened emotional distress and social isolation, which can negatively affect their social relationships and overall mental health. Parents, especially mothers of these children, commonly experience high levels of psychological stress, anxiety, and depression, factors that interact to affect their quality of life as well as the severity of the child's symptoms. Given the high prevalence of ADHD and its psychosocial consequences, and the critical role of parents in managing this disorder, identifying and implementing interventions that simultaneously focus on improving the parent-child relationship and reducing negative psychological indicators in parents is an undeniable necessity. So, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a parent-child interaction improvement program on improving emotion regulation and reducing social isolation in mothers of children with ADHD.
Methods: The present research employed a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design with a control group. The sample consisted of 30 mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD who sought counseling services at a center in Karaj City, Iran, in 2024. Participants were selected using purposive sampling and randomly assigned to either the experimental (15 participants) or control (15 participants) group. For this study, 50 mothers were initially included as a primary sample. Initial screening was performed using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2001) and the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1980). Mothers who scored less than 108 on the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and more than 50 on the Revised Loneliness Scale entered the next stage. After screening, 30 eligible mothers were included in the study through purposive sampling and then randomly assigned to two groups of 15: experimental and control. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to select subjects. One of the inclusion criteria was informed consent to participate in the research and cooperate in the training process. Mothers who were unwilling to participate were excluded because they did not provide consent. The experimental group participated in a designed training program that included 10 weekly, face-to-face, 60-minute sessions. Data from pretest and posttest in two groups were collected using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. The research data were analyzed at two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics. At the descriptive level, indicators such as the mean and standard deviation were used; at the inferential level, analysis of covariance was used. Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software version 26 at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: The parent-child interaction improvement program had a significant effect on mothers' emotion regulation in children with ADHD (p<0.001), with an effect size of 20%. In addition, this treatment had a significant effect on reducing the social isolation of mothers of children with ADHD (p<0.001), and its effect size was 16%.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, the parent-child interaction improvement program improves mothers' ability to manage their emotions and reduces feelings of social isolation. It can also be considered an effective strategy to support mothers in these families.