THE IMPACT OF CBT ON DEPRESSION IN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral interventions for the elimination of depression in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder in individual setting. Total of 24 mothers were selected for the study. It was hypothesized that mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders who receive CBT intervention will experience fewer or no depressive symptoms compared to mothers of control group and mothers having borderline level of clinical depression will exhibit no depressive symptoms after CBT intervention, compared to mothers having moderate level of depression. Participants were divided into two groups with 12 participants in experimental and 12 in control group. Total of twelve therapy sessions were conducted by following Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The pretest and posttest were done by filling in Beck Depression Inventory scale (Urdu Version) and a semi-structured interview form including demographic information and other relevant information were used. To see the effect of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on the elimination of depression on mothers, Independent Sample T-test was applied. The results t = -6.853 indicate that there is statistically significant difference between both groups. Pretest and posttest results of Experimental group were compared by using Paired sample T-test. The results indicates that there is a strong difference between paired scores with t = 8.926.