Results
In present study, 102 parents were assessed for eligibility. 90 parents who meet the inclusion criteria were randomized as 45 individuals in each groups (Fig. 1). The socio-demographic characteristics of the parents participating in the study are presented in Table 1.
The average age of the parents is 33.51 ± 6.53, 54.5% of them are in the 30-39 age group. The majority of the parents (77.9%) were female, university graduates (51.9%), had middle income (58.4%) and the majority (90.9%) had no illness. In addition, about half of the parents (51.9%) were working during the pandemic period. There was no statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of sociodemographic characteristics before the intervention (p> .05) (Table 1).
When the issues that cause the parents, who participated in the study, to be worried were examined; it was seen that 64.9% of the parents stated that they were afraid that their child could be sick and that their child’s being away from school negatively affected his/her mental health. In addition, 58.4% of the parents stated that their child became aggressive because he/she was always at home.
It was determined that the majority of the parents, who participated in the study, had access to information about the pandemic via TV (34%) and social media (29%). It was determined that the social life of 93.5% of the parents, the family life of 66.2% of the parents, the work life of 55.8% of the parents, the economic status of 54.5% of the parents and the sexual life of 15.6% of the parents were affected. When the parents’ coping behaviours during the pandemic period were examined, it was determined that 23.4% of the parents spent time with their family and were interested in activities and hobbies, 20.8% did nothing or tried not to think about the pandemic. When the parents’ predictions about the pandemic were evaluated, it was seen that 33.8% of the parents stated that they would continue to take precautions even if the pandemic decreases. In addition, 33.2% of the parents stated that they believed there would be new pandemics, 19.5% believed that this pandemic would decrease over time, and 15.5% did not believe that the pandemic would decrease (Table 2).
When the effect of SFBT on parents’ state anxiety scores was examined, a statistically significant difference was found between the pre-test (56.10 ± 10.14) and post-test (43.51 ± 9.22) STAI-S total scores of the intervention group to which the programme was applied (p = .000). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test STAI-S total scores of the control group (p = .616, Table 3). When the changes in the parents’ trait anxiety scores were examined, STAI-T post-test mean scores in the intervention group were found to be lower than the pre-test mean scores. However, this difference is not statistically significant (p = .149). In the control group, no statistically significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test STAI-T mean scores (p = .817).