Exploring the Variables of the Psychological Well-Being of Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Through Self-Compassion and Psychological Hardiness.

Present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between self-compassion and psychological hardiness, and psychological well-being among mothers of children with autism. The research design was correlational, and its statistical population sample consisted of 101 mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder. The results of a correlational analysis showed a significant positive relationship between self-compassion and psychological hardiness, and psychological well-being. Multiple regression analysis showed that among the variables of self-compassion and psychological hardiness, the variable of self-compassion had the largest share in predicting the psychological well-being of mothers. Concerning self-compassion, conscious awareness of self-kindness along with psychological hardship could predict the psychological well-being in these groups of mothers, such as raising a child with ASD.

A report on the blended short-term supplementary course on "Developmental Care for infants and toddlers" taught with a multidisciplinary approach for pediatricians -qualitative and quantitative study.

BACKGROUND: The implementation of follow-up programs for high-risk infants and toddlers aimed to promptly diagnose developmental delays and disorders and initiate early intervention to help improve their developmental status, reduce their care costs in the future, as well as improve their productivity as members of society. There is a lack of qualified specialists in the infant and toddler development field in Iran. To compensate for the lack of training in this area, for the first time, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences has designed a short-term supplementary course of "Developmental Care for Infants and Toddlers". Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the field of child development, this course has been designed as such. The current study aimed to evaluate this course and explain the graduates' relevant experiences using a multidisciplinary approach. METHODS: The current study is a quantitative/qualitative study conducted in two phases. In the first step, the learners were asked to assess the teaching quality of the short-term supplementary course of "Developmental Care for Infants and Toddlers" in 5 areas of "educational design," "course administrators' support", " learners' motivation ", "acquisition of general learning and specialized skills" using the Australian Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). All graduates completed the questionnaires. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics of medians, and interquartile ranges in SPSS software. The second step was a qualitative study to explain the graduates' experiences of this course with a multidisciplinary approach. The samples were selected using a purposive sampling technique. The samples were those who had completed the course mentioned above, had rich experiences in this field, and were willing to share them. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis. RESULTS: In general, the graduates' satisfaction with the course in terms of the five areas studied was evaluated as follows: Educational design, motivating participants to do their best had the greatest median. 5(4-5), Learning objectives; in all items, the median was 4. Course content and resources; all items median were 4 .Relevant learner assessment methods; in all items, the median was 4.The median learners' satisfaction in the areas of "course administrators' support" in all items was 4 and "learners' motivation ", was 5. Learner's motivation" in all items it was 4, indicating the highest level of satisfaction with the "acquisition of specialized skills". In the area of education design, the highest satisfaction was found with the appropriateness of teaching strategies. The codes extracted from the analysis of interviews with the graduates, are divided into four categories: "Ethical and professional commitment of course teachers", "Being a role model in the observance of patients and their caregivers' rights", "Course planning with a multidisciplinary approach and teamwork" as well as "The use of virtual platforms to strengthen and maintain team communication between learners". CONCLUSION: This course was the first experience of applying a multidisciplinary approach in an interprofessional course. Ideally, it is indispensable for the Iranian medical education system to move away from specialization and connect all related specialties and disciplines to achieve its educational and therapeutic goals. Therefore, the design of this course can be applied as an educational model for other disciplines and clinical courses.

Maternal acceptance-rejection, self-compassion and empathy in mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Objective This study aimed to determine the link between Parental Acceptance-Rejection (PAR) and empathy and self-compassion in mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). Method: The sample consists of 161 mothers who received pre-school education with children diagnosed with IDDs in Iran. The parental acceptance-rejection questionnaire, empathy questionnaire, and self-compassion scale were used as the data collection instruments, which have been analyzed through canonical correlation test. Results: There is a positive correlation between children's self-empathy and self-compassion and the PAR, and there is no significant relationship between mother's affection levels and empathy levels, but there is a significant negative relationship between mother's affection levels and child's self-compassion levels. Conclusion: when the PAR level increases, self-compassion level decreases. It provides support to predict a significant relationship between the mothers' acceptance-rejection variables who have an IDD child and empathy and self-compassion.

Development and Validation of a New Instrument for Screening Bullies and Victims in Classrooms.

Although a number of studies have been conducted on the subject of bullying, there is an absence of a standard instrument which can map the bullying network and identify the groups involved in it. The current study aimed to provide a standard instrument for screening bullies and victims in the classroom, which has validity and reliability indicators to map the network of relationships between the bullies and victims. In this regard, 337 high school students (176 males and 161 females) were selected via cluster sampling and, afterward, the Screening Instrument for Bullies and Victims in Classrooms (SIBVC) was used in the sample group. To examine the concurrent validity, Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) and Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (APRI) were used. The results depicted that the individuals' scores of bullying and victimization in SIBVC are positively and negatively related to their scores in MESSY subscales, respectively. Also, individuals' scores of bullying in SIBVC is positively related to bullying scores and negatively related to victimization scores in APRI. Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the reliability of SIBVC, and the results showed that in all classes, the obtained alpha was higher than .72. Two weeks after the first run, the instrument was reimplemented and the reliability coefficient was (p < .001, r = .97 for bullying and r = .96 for victimization). The results depicted that SIBVC benefited from favorable validity, and it was able to identify the bullies and the victims quite well in the classrooms; also, SIBVC scores had favorable reliability over time. Criteria such as the use of dyadic nomination and network mapping among the groups involved in bullying are the benefits of SIBVC, which make it a useful and new instrument in bullying research.

Goodenough-Harris Drawing a Man Test (GHDAMT) as a Substitute of Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ2) for Evaluation of Cognition.

OBJECTIVE: The main aim of the current research was evaluation of concurrent validity of the Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Man Test (GHDAMT) with the problem-solving subscale of ASQ2 among children between 54-60 months old in Tabriz City, northwestern Iran. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 136 males and 105 females were selected by simple random sampling from nursery schools in Tabriz City, northwestern Iran in 2014 and tested with GHDAMT and ASQ2 to compare the concurrent validity of these tests in evaluation of cognition. Data were analyzed using Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficients and SPSS.16. RESULTS: The mean Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in girls was 128±18.18 and in boys 118±18.50, and the difference was statistically significant P<0.001. There was no statistically significant correlation between GHDAMT and ASQ2 .The statistical correlation was significant between IQ and mental age among children who had -2SD score in problem-solving subscale, but there was no statistical correlation between children who had -1SD score P<0.002. There was no statistically significant correlation between problem-solving subscale of ASQ2 and mental age and IQ. CONCLUSION: GHDAMT did not have acceptable validity and concurrent validity of the test was less than 0.3. So GHDAMT cannot be used as a substitute of ASQ questionnaire. However, the correlation of two tests in children with intellectual and developmental disability was significant. After doing more studies in further research, it is possible to use GHDAMT as a proper tool for cognition evaluation of these children.