Impact of Mindfulness Meditation Practices on Self-Efficacyamong Parents of Children with Thalassemia Major

Abstract

Thalassemia is a hereditary blood disorder that poses significant physical, emotional andpsychological challenges not only for children but also for their parents. Due to the chronicnature of the illness and long-term caregiving responsibilities, parents of those childrenoften experience continuous psychological stress. Such challenges may negatively affectparents’ belief in their ability to manage caregiving demands, referred to as self-efficacy.Mindfulness meditation has been recognized as an effective psychological intervention thatpromotes emotional regulation, awareness, and adaptive coping. The present studyexamined the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation practices in enhancing self-efficacyamong parents of children with thalassemia major. A sample of 40 parents (20 mothers and20 fathers) aged between 25 to 50 years were selected purposefully from Sharda NarayanHospital, Mau, UP. A pretest-posttest control group design was used, wherein participantswere randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Participants ofexperimental group were provided with a structured mindfulness meditation sessions for aperiod of three month, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Self –Efficacy was measured using a standardized scale before and after the intervention. MixedAnalysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical analysis. The result revealed astatistically significant improvement in self- efficacy scores among experimental group ascompared to control group. A significant difference was also observed between pretest andposttest scores. However, no significant gender difference was found between mothers andfathers. Thus, the intervention was found to be effective in improving self-efficacy amongparents of children with thalassemia major.