M.A. Thesis:

The Impact of Reality Therapy on Alexithymia and Astigma mothers of Mentally retarded

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of reality therapy education on alexithymia and stigma of mothers with mentally retarded children in the city of Sabzevar. The quasi-experimental research method with a pretest and a posttest and with a control group has been used in this study. The study population consists of all mothers with mentally retarded children in the city of Sabzevar. To achieve the goals of the study, we selected a total of 34 mothers of children with intellectual disability using the convenience sampling method and divided them randomly into two groups, namely the experimental group (n = 17) and the control group (n = 17). Then the two groups were given a pre-test. The experimental group received reality therapy intervention during eight 90-minute sessions on a weekly basis, while the control group received no intervention. After the end of the program, the two groups were given a post-test. The tools used in the study include the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (1994) and a modified version of the Standard Stigma Questionnaire of Ritsher et al (2003). The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics methods (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance) with the help of SPSS version 23. The results showed that reality therapy education has a significant positive effect on the alexithymia and stigma of mothers of children with intellectual disability (p <0.001).

Keywords: Reality Therapy, alexithymia, stigma