ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Fahimi Rad   SZ. (*)
Salehi   GH. (1)






(*) Counseling Department, Faculty of Psychology and Consultation, University of Social Welfare Sciences, Tehran, Iran
(1) Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Tehran, Narmak, Square 57, Akhtar Alley, No. 9. Postcode 1681773811
Phone: +98 (21) 33770011
Fax: +98 (21) 33372010
zhr_fahimirad@yahoo.com

Article History

Received:  August  30, 2017
Accepted:  June 2, 2018
ePublished:  October 11, 2018

BRIEF TEXT


... [1-4]. The Iran-Iraq war had several consequences as well as various effects as a severe mental stress factor. It seems that the adverse effects of the war on the soldiers and their families and wives have continued to persist, even following the end of the war and returning the soldiers to their families, due to its stresses and undesirable effect on people's mental health [5].

... [6, 7]. Several studies have focused on the effective treatment methods for improving the quality of life in different statistical societies over the past few decades. Of these, some psychologists have presented new methods as the neuro-linguistic programming. The program emphasizes that human behavior comes from neurological processes, where the experience of the peripheral world can lead to neurological processes, which can guide our performances [8]. ... [9-18]. Several studies have examined the effectiveness of the neuro-linguistic programming training in various statistical societies. Patrick research showed that neuro-linguistic programming can be effective at any communicational levels [19]. Hall also showed that neuro-linguistic programming can improve human’s communications [20]. According to the Doel’s study, based on the principles of this method, it can be effective in interpersonal relations [21]. Arab Bafarani et al. showed that neuro-linguistic programming is effective in marital adjustment [22]. Mikaeeli et al. considered neuro-linguistic programming effective in the mental health of the individuals [9].

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of the strategic training of the neuro-linguistic programming on improving the quality of life of veterans’ wives (with 25-50% level of disability).

This semi-experimental study was done with the pre-test post-test design.

The statistical population included all wives of veterans (with 25-50% level of disability) covered by the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of the cities of Tehran in 2016.

At first, 150 subjects were randomly selected from the list of veterans' wives (with 25-50% level of disability) from the studied cities, and then the quality of life questionnaire was performed. Thirty subjects were selected among those who received the lowest score from the quality of life questionnaire, and were divided into the experimental and control groups. The inclusion criteria included a veteran spouse with the physical disability and a maximum age of 60 years. Exclusion criteria also included veterans with mental disorders and drug abuse, and the chemical war veterans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire (the WHO short form of quality of life) was used as the research tool. This questionnaire was used in the pre-test and post-test. It was first conducted in 1991. It was designed as an international and non-cultural instrument for assessing the quality of life of the individuals. It has been translated to Farsi by Nasiri and two professors from the Department of Educational Psychology in Shiraz University [23]. In this study, it was used as a measurement index. The questionnaire has 26 questions and examines four areas of the quality of life, including physical health, mental health, relationships with others, and perception of the living environment. It assesses individuals' perceptions of the values, cultures, as well as personal goals, standards, and concerns. Questions 3, 4, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18 evaluate physical health, questions 5, 6, 7, 11, 19, and 26 measure mental health, and questions 20, 21, and 22 measure social relationships. Moreover, questions 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, and 25 examine the perception of life, and the questions 1 and 2 measure explicit studies on the quality of life and general health. The questions are scored from 1 to 5 (very much, much, average, very little, and none) and the negative questions are scored reversely. To evaluate the scores, after obtaining the raw scores of each subscale, it was converted to a standard score from 0 to 100, which was calculated according to the below formula: The possible lowest score from the subscale - The obtained score from the subscale/The difference between the possible highest and lowest scores from the subscale×100 To assess the reliability of the scale, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained 73-89% for the four-point subscales and for the total scale, by the World Health Organization's Quality of Life team, introducing the scale, in 15 international organizations [23]. The informed consent was obtained from the participants prior participating, and they were assured about the confidentiality of the results and the fact that they can leave the study at any stages. The educational program was carried out for the experimental group in 10 sessions (Table 1). Data was analyzed using SPSS 23. Strategic training of the neuro-linguistic programming was independent variable and the quality of life of the veterans' wives was dependent variable. Multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) and dependent t-test were used to test the hypotheses. In addition, independent T-test was used for comparison of the experimental and control groups in the pre-test and post-test.

The mean age of veterans' wives in the control group and the experimental group were 45.80±9.82 and 44.30±11.22 years, respectively. The mean level of disability of the veterans in the control group and the experimental group were 37.67±6.80% and 37.33±5.96%, respectively. In the experimental group, the mean scores of the quality of life in pre-test and post-test were 64.93±11.13 and 89.87±9.21, respectively (Table 2). There was no significant difference between the mean of the experimental and the control group in pre-test (p>0.05) in physical health (t=0.692, p=0.495), mental health (t=0.205, p=0.839), social relationships (t=0.533, p=589), perception of the living environment (t=0.741, p=0.456), and the quality of life (t=0.060, p=0.952), whereas there was a significant difference in the post-test between the mean of physical health (p=0.006, t=5.752), mental health (t=5.150, p=0.0001), social relationships (t= 3.670, p=0.001), perception of the living environment (t=5.680, p=0.0001), and the quality of life (t = 5.752, p=0.0001). The participants in the experimental group showed a more significant increase in the scores of the quality of life (F=45.045, P=0.002), mental health (F=25.545, P=0.002), physical health (F=8.239, P=0.002), social relationships (F=12.776, p=0.002), and perception of the living environment (F=151.728, p=0.002).

In this study, the members of the experimental group showed a more significant increase in the quality of life scores compared with the control group, which was consistent with the study by Mohajer Irvani et al. [24] and Ehteshami Tabar [24]. The findings of the present study were consistent with the results of the study by Parande et al. [25] on the effect of relaxation on the health and quality of life of the veterans’ wives with PTSD. Nejati et al. [26] showed that awareness index is effective on the quality of life of the blind veterans and there is a significant correlation between mindfulness with dimensions, vitality, and mental health, which is consistent with the present study. In the present study, the members of the experimental group had a more significant increase in mental health scores compared with the control group. ... [27]. Sin and Lyubomirsky [28] in a meta-analysis on 51 studies showed that the interventions in positive psychology could significantly increase the well-being and reduce the symptoms of depression; they also showed that positive affection is associated with several positive outcomes, including better performance levels in work and health. In the Schütze et al. [29] study, mindfulness and positive thinking had a negative significant association with the severity of pain, negative affection, pain catastrophizing, pain-related fear, being alert to the pain, and disability in performance, which is consistent with the results of this study. In the present study, the experimental group had a significant increase in physical health scores compared with the control group. According to the Brown and Jones, patients who underwent meditation exercises, felt the less unpleasant pain and the meditation could predict the less negative perception of the pain, which is consistent with the current study. In the present study, the members of the experimental group showed a significant increase in social relationships scores compared with the control group. In this regard, the findings of this study are consistent with the results of Ehteshami Tabar et al. [11] and Mohajer Irvani [24]. In this study, the experimental group showed a significant increase in the perception of the living environment compared with the control group, which is consistent with the results of Ehteshami Tabar et al. [11] study. In addition, Mohajer Irvani [24] showed that neuro-linguistic programming training is effective in increasing the mean of perception of the living environment which is also consistent with the results of the present study.

It is suggested to conduct studies in the future by generalizing the obtained results to the community.

There was a limited literature review for this study, which can be considered as one of the limitations of this study. Moreover, only the wives of a specific group of veterans with a physical disability were studied.

Strategic training of the neuro-linguistic programming improves the quality of life of the veterans’ wives.

We are grateful to all the veterans’ families, especially the veterans’ wives (with the 25-50% disability) of the Tehran who have accompanied us patiently.

None declared.

None declared.

None declared.

TABLES and CHARTS

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