The effect of educational intervention according to mindfulness on the psychological well-being of female heads of households

Fataneh Mahmoudi; Maryam Zarnaghash; Nadere Sohrabi Shegefti; Majid Barzegar

doi:10.1186/s12905-024-03125-9

The effect of educational intervention according to mindfulness on the psychological well-being of female heads of households

BMC Womens Health. 2024 Jun 3;24(1):320. doi: 10.1186/s12905-024-03125-9.

Authors

Fataneh Mahmoudi¹, Maryam Zarnaghash², Nadere Sohrabi Shegefti³, Majid Barzegar⁴

Affiliations

¹ Educational Psychology, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.
² Department of Psychology, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran. Zarnaghashmaryam@gmail.com.
³ Department of General Psychology, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.
⁴ Department of Educational Psychology, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.

Abstract

Objective: The low level of psychological well-being is one of the most common problems of the women who are the heads of households, and various educational programs have been conducted to improve the psychological well-being of such a group. The present study was conducted to outline the effectiveness of mindfulness-based educational intervention in the psychological well-being of women as the heads of households.

Methods: This research as a semi-experimental study was done by pretest-posttest design and control group. The study statistical population included all women as the heads of households in Shiraz, who had a file in the Shiraz based welfare office and at the same time their children were studying in schools covered by the 2nd district educational department of Shiraz in 2022-2023. Out of the female heads of the households in the statistical community, 30 women were selected as Purposive sampling and then randomly divided into two 15-individual groups, including experimental group (training on mindfulness-based therapy) and control group. The research tool included Ryff's psychological well-being scale (Ryff, 1989). The experimental group was subjected to training on mindfulness-based therapy (Baer et al., 2006) during eight 90-min sessions. However, the control group did not receive any intervention.

Result: After running the intervention, a significant difference was seen between the components of autonomy, personal growth, purpose in life, self-acceptance, positive relationship with others, and psychological well-being after running the educational intervention between the experimental and control groups (P < 0.05), while no meaningful difference popped up between the experimental and control groups in terms of environmental mastery as one of the aspects measured in psychological well-being scale after the educational intervention (P = 0.602).

Conclusion: According to the results, it seems that psychologists can benefit from the method of training on mindfulness-based therapy in order to increase the psychological well-being of women as the heads of households.

Keywords: Educational intervention; Mindfulness; Psychological well-being; Women as the heads of household.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Adult
Family Characteristics
Female
Humans
Iran
Mental Health
Middle Aged
Mindfulness* / methods
Psychological Well-Being