Background
A child with a disability causes many psychological problems for the family members, especially for the mother. Considering the importance of maternal happiness in the family and society, the aim of the present study was to compare happiness training based on Islamic concepts and Qigong exercises effectiveness on happiness of mothers with handicapped children.
Methods
A Semi-experimental design was conducted (pre-test and post-test) with two experimental and one control groups. 45 mothers with handicapped children Welfare of Tabriz (Iran) who had lower scores in the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire by Argyle (1990), were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into two experimental groups (15 people in each group) and one control group (15 people). For the first group, Happiness training based on Islamic concepts (8 sessions; a week 2 sessions in one hour) and for the second group, Qigong exercises (8 sessions; week 2 sessions, 30 to 40 minutes) was applied and the control group did not receive any training. Prior and after the training, the subjects completed Argyle Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (1990). Univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data.
Results
The results showed that the mean scores of happiness of mothers with handicapped children increased significantly in the group of Happiness training based on Islamic concepts comparison to Qigong exercises group and in the Qigong exercises group comparison to the control group in the post-test (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
The results showed that happiness training based on Islamic concepts is more effective in increasing happiness in mothers with handicapped children than Qigong exercises.