Rational emotive health therapy for the management of depressive symptoms among parents of children with intellectual and reading disabilities in English language

BACKGROUND: There is little data in developing countries such as Nigeria with regard to the impact of caring for their children with intellectual and reading disability (IRD) on the quality of life of the parents and the risk of psychopathology. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of the study was to assess the level of psychopathology, i.e., depression among parents of children with intellectual and reading disabilities. METHODS: This was pretest/posttest control group design with 198 parents (99 fathers/99 mothers) of 100 children with the diagnosis of IRD. The measures used in this study for data collection was Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed for data analysis. RESULTS: Result obtained showed a significant high proportion of depressive symptoms among parents of children with intellectual and reading disabilities at initial assessment. Furthermore, the REHT intervention resulted in a significant reduction in depression of parents in treatment group as compared to those in the control group. CONCLUSION: The presence of a child with intellectual and reading disabilities does not cause parents to become depressed but irrational beliefs about their children’s mental and reading deficiencies may contribute to unhealthy thinking and feelings about the future of their children. REHT is very effective in assisting depressed parents of children with intellectual and reading disabilities to think rationally about their children and work towards overcoming disability-related as well as behavior-related irrational beliefs. The mental health providers, therapists and counselors should apply the REHT in managing people with psychological distress especially parents of children with intellectual and reading disabilities who may have psychological diagnosis of depression.