Effect of Yoga and Values Clarification on Stress, Comfort, and Emotional Regulation in Parents of Children With Special Needs

Participants in this group will receive a values clarification intervention based on Comfort Theory to support emotional awareness, coping, and psychological well-being.

A values clarification intervention based on Comfort Theory delivered over 8 weeks, focusing on helping participants identify personal values, enhance emotional awareness, and develop effective coping strategies to improve psychological well-being.

A structured yoga intervention delivered over 8 weeks to improve relaxation, emotional regulation, and overall well-being in parents of children with special needs.

A structured yoga program delivered over 8 weeks, including breathing exercises, physical postures, and relaxation techniques, aimed at improving emotional regulation, reducing stress, and enhancing overall comfort in parents of children with special needs.

Participants in this group will not receive any intervention during the study period.

Comfort levels will be measured using a validated scale based on Comfort Theory before and after the intervention.The Turkish validity and reliability of the General Comfort Scale, developed by Kolcaba in 1992, were established by Kuğuoğlu and Karabacak (2008). The scale is a four-point Likert-type instrument consisting of a total of 48 items. The comfort levels addressed by the scale are relief (16 items), ease (17 items), and transcendence (15 items). The scale comprises both positive and negative items, with the response format arranged in a mixed order. Accordingly, for positive items, a high score (four) indicates a high level of comfort, while a low score (one) indicates a low level of comfort. When scoring the scale, the scores obtained from negative items are reverse-coded and then summed with the scores from positive items. The maximum possible total score is 192, and the minimum is 48. Low comfort is represented by a score of one, and high comfort by a score of four.

Changes in emotional regulation levels will be assessed using a validated emotional regulation scale before the intervention and after the 8-week intervention periodThe scale is scored on a 7-point Likert scale. It is used in emotion regulation studies and aims to evaluate two emotion regulation strategies. The scale has two factors: items 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10 relate to the re-evaluation factor, while items 2, 4, 6, and 9 relate to the repression subscale. There are no reverse-coded items in the scale. High scores on the subscales indicate high repression or high re-evaluation strategy use. A total score cannot be obtained from the scale (Eldeleklioğlu and Eroğlu, 2015). The lowest possible score for the re-evaluation subscale is 6, and the highest is 42. The lowest possible score for the repression subscale is 4, and the highest is 28.

Perceived stress levels will be evaluated using a standardized stress scale before and after the 8-week intervention period.The ASÖ-10 questions are scored on a scale of 0 (never) to 4 (very often), with possible scores ranging from 0 to 40. A high score indicates a high level of perceived stress.