Emotion-focused family therapy with families in Iran: effects on parental fear, self-blame and self-efficacy

This study, the first of its kind in Iran, evaluated the effectiveness of
a two-day Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) group workshop
among Iranian mothers of adolescents aged 12–17 years, aimed at
reducing fear and self-blame and increasing self-efficacy. During the
pandemic, we recruited mothers struggling with their adolescents’
behavior (e.g. aggression, withdrawal, or refusal to talk). Participants
matched for age and presenting issue were randomly assigned to
experimental (18) or no-treatment control (18) condition. The experimental
condition involved an intensive two-day EFFT training workshop
(delivered either in person, n = 11, or online, n = 7) to help
mothers more effectively manage their child’s challenging behaviors.
All mothers (both experimental and control) completed two self-
report measures, the Caregiver Traps Scale (CTS) and the Parental
Self-Agency Measure (PSAM), pre- and post-intervention. Results
included significant reductions in maternal fear and self-blame on
the CTS in the experimental group (d = .77) but little or no pre-post
change in the control group (−.02). Reported maternal self-efficacy
on the PSAM improved somewhat (but not significantly) in the
experimental group (.29); there was no change in the control group
(−.05). Post hoc analyses indicated significant pre-post improvement
for in-person (mean d = .86) but not online delivery (.16).