RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Most Christian parents living with children with low vision have reported to be experiencing psychological disturbances that are affecting the family health. As a result, the quality of family life is being impaired. The experience of parents catering for children with low vision is mainly influenced by psychosocial factors that could determine the quality of family life of such parents. This present study is to investigate the efficacy of rational emotive family health therapy in reducing poor quality of family life among Christian parents of children with low vision in Nsukka Catholic Dioceses. METHOD: This is a randomized pretest and posttest control trial. Participants were 88 parents of children living with low vision in Nsukka Catholic Dioceses, Nigeria. The power of the sample size was determined using Gpower statistical software. The participants in rational emotive family health therapy programme-group were exposed to a 12-session treatment programme whereas their counterparts in waitlisted control group did not receive anything. A family quality of life scale was utilized in assessing the participants. Data analyses were performed using repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: It was found that rational emotive family health therapy had a significant positive effect on increasing quality of family life among the study participants compared to those in the waitlisted control group. CONCLUSION: This study contributed and validated the efficacy of rational emotive family health therapy in improving quality of family life among parents of children with low vision.
