Family Resilience, Mindfulness
Conditions
Keywords
Family resilience, Mindfulness, Intellectual disability, Mothers, Mindfulness-based intervention, Mixed methods
Brief summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Family Resilience Group Intervention can improve family resilience and mindfulness in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. The intervention combines mindfulness practices with principles from Walsh's systemic family resilience model. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does the intervention improve mothers' reported family resilience? * Does the intervention improve mothers' mindfulness? * How do mothers describe their caregiving experiences, parenting roles, and family life, and how do these experiences change during the intervention? Researchers will compare mothers who receive the Mindfulness-Based Family Resilience Group Intervention with mothers in a control group who continue to receive usual care. Participants in the intervention group will: * Attend one group session per week for eight weeks, with each session lasting approximately 90 minutes. * Take part in mindfulness practices and activities focused on awareness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily experiences, acceptance, self-compassion, and personal and family resources. * Complete assessments of family resilience and mindfulness before the intervention, after the intervention, and at a three-month follow-up. Participants in the control group will continue to receive usual care and will complete the same assessments at the same time points. The study will also examine participants' experiences during the group intervention to better understand the processes that accompany changes in family resilience and mindfulness.
Detailed description
Mothers of children with intellectual disabilities may experience long-term caregiving demands that affect their emotional well-being, coping processes, and family life. Family resilience provides a systemic framework for understanding how families adapt to ongoing challenges by drawing on shared belief systems, organizational resources, communication, and problem-solving processes. Mindfulness, in turn, emphasizes present-moment awareness and a nonjudgmental approach to thoughts, emotions, and bodily experiences. Integrating these two approaches may provide a way to support both individual awareness and family-related coping resources. The Mindfulness-Based Family Resilience Group Intervention was developed by integrating Walsh's systemic family resilience framework with core mindfulness principles and practices. The program was designed to help mothers become more aware of their thoughts, emotions, and bodily responses; relate to difficult experiences with greater acceptance and self-compassion; recognize automatic patterns of responding; and identify personal and family strengths and resources. Family resilience processes, including meaning-making, organizational patterns, communication, and problem solving, were addressed alongside mindfulness-based experiential practices. The intervention consisted of eight weekly group sessions, each lasting approximately 90 minutes. Across the program, participants engaged in practices involving breath and body awareness, present-moment attention, nonjudgmental observation of thoughts and emotions, acceptance, self-compassion, emotion regulation, and reflection on personal and family resources. Experiential exercises and group discussions were used to connect mindfulness practices with participants' caregiving experiences, parenting roles, and family relationships. The study used a randomized controlled, embedded mixed-methods design. The quantitative component was designed to evaluate changes in family resilience and mindfulness over time and to compare these changes between the intervention and usual-care control conditions. The qualitative component was embedded within the intervention process to provide a more detailed understanding of participants' experiences and the processes accompanying change. Qualitative information obtained from group-session recordings and field notes was examined using thematic analysis. This component focused on how participants described and made sense of their caregiving experiences, difficult thoughts and emotions, parenting roles, personal and family resources, and changes experienced during the intervention. Integrating the quantitative and qualitative components was intended to provide a broader understanding of both changes in the measured outcomes and the experiential processes accompanying those changes.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMindfulness-Based Family Resilience Group Intervention
The Mindfulness-Based Family Resilience Group Intervention was an eight-week, group-based behavioral intervention integrating mindfulness practices with Walsh's systemic family resilience framework. The intervention was delivered once weekly, with each session lasting approximately 90 minutes. The eight sessions focused sequentially on: (1) building safety and awareness, (2) acceptance of emotions and self-compassion, (3) values and meaning-making, (4) acceptance of uncertainty, (5) flexible problem solving, (6) discovering family strengths, (7) consolidating gains and relapse prevention, and (8) integration and closure. Core mindfulness components included breath and body awareness, acceptance-based mindfulness, values-focused mindfulness, cognitive defusion and observing thoughts, strength-focused mindfulness, the three-minute breathing space, and compassion and gratitude meditation. Experiential and group activities were used to support emotional awareness, acceptance, psychological
Sponsors
Sinop University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
Participants and intervention facilitators were not blinded due to the nature of the group-based intervention. However, the datasets were coded so that group identities were concealed during statistical analysis, and the analyses were conducted without knowledge of group allocation.
Intervention model description
This study used a two-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled design. Participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group received the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Family Resilience Group Intervention, delivered once weekly in approximately 90-minute group sessions. The control group continued to receive usual care. Both groups were assessed before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and at the three-month follow-up.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
27 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* \* Mothers of children aged 9-17 years. * Mothers whose children had mild or moderate intellectual disability. * Willingness to participate in the study and provide informed consent.
Exclusion criteria
* Mothers whose children had severe intellectual disability. * Not meeting the predefined inclusion criteria. * Declining to participate in the study.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Family Resilience Scale (FRS) | Baseline (March 13, 2026), immediately post-intervention (May 1, 2026), and 3-month follow-up (July 31, 2026) | Family resilience was assessed using the Family Resilience Scale (FRS), developed by Kaner and Bayraklı (2010). The scale consists of 37 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Does not describe me at all") to 5 ("Describes me very well"). Total scores range from 37 to 185, with higher scores indicating higher levels of family resilience. The scale includes four subscales: Resilience/Challenge (17 items), Self-Efficacy (9 items), Commitment to Life (8 items), and Control (3 items). |
| Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) | Baseline (March 13, 2026), immediately post-intervention (May 1, 2026), and 3-month follow-up (July 31, 2026) | Mindfulness was assessed using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), developed by Brown and Ryan (2003). The scale consists of 15 items rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Almost always") to 6 ("Almost never"). Total scores range from 15 to 90, with higher scores indicating higher levels of mindful attention and awareness. The Turkish adaptation, validity, and reliability study of the scale was conducted by Özyeşil et al. (2011). |
Countries
Turkey (Türkiye)
Outcome results
None listed