Comparing Meaning Therapy and Quality of Life Therapy for Improving Parent–Adolescent Interaction in Maladjusted Students

Objective: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of meaning therapy and quality of life therapy on parent–adolescent interaction among maladjusted students.

Methods and Materials: A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control-group design with a two-month follow-up was conducted. The participants included 48 maladjusted adolescents aged 16–18 years who were referred to counseling centers of the Tehran Department of Education in 2025. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to three groups: meaning therapy (n = 16), quality of life therapy (n = 16), and control (n = 16). Parent–adolescent interaction was assessed using the Parent–Child Relationship Questionnaire. The experimental groups received their respective interventions, while the control group received no treatment. Data were analyzed using mixed-design analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc tests.

Findings: The mixed ANOVA showed a significant time × group interaction for parent–adolescent interaction, F = 5.78, p < .001, η² = .216, indicating different changes across groups over time. Both meaning therapy and quality of life therapy significantly improved parent–adolescent interaction compared with the control group. The post hoc analysis showed that the mean difference between the meaning therapy group and control group was 5.94 points (p = .017), and the difference between the quality of life therapy group and control group was 8.52 points (p < .001). No significant difference was found between the two intervention groups (p = .622). Improvements remained stable at the two-month follow-up.

Conclusion: Meaning therapy and quality of life therapy were both effective in improving parent–adolescent interaction among maladjusted students, with neither approach demonstrating superiority.