Developing a masters curriculum for University of Welfare and Rehabilitation in Tehran/Iran by exploring social support and social network in Iranian women with children under school age.

The purpose of this project was to:
• Develop a postgraduate curriculum for Health care professionals to be used by University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation (USWR) in Iran based on the needs of mothers in Iran. The developed curriculum used selected findings of research completed by me who explored social support and family networks offered to Iranian women with children under the school age.
• Create a research data base for information to be use by all researchers on women and women health by students who will be taking the created curriculum during their research and dissertation modules in USWR in Iran.
The research conducted used mixed methodology approach /triangulation by means of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A focus group was employed to gain information and further understanding to the meaning of social support and family network from perspectives of those mothers. Following the focus group a questionnaire was devised in conclusion with the findings of the focus group which were building blocks for the questionnaire and informed by literature. Six hundred questionnaires were distributed surveying mothers of three different social classes, living in various parts of Tehran. The questionnaires were distributed at a number of health care clinics using purposive sampling technique. The inclusion criteria for the selection of the research category, was that the mothers had to have a child/children under the school age, and in addition be willing to complete the questionnaire in the clinic.
Following the survey 24 self selected mothers from the same group were asked to commence on documenting a two week diary. They were provided with guidelines and instructions on how to complete the diaries. The resulting quantitative data was analysed with the use of SPSS and the qualitative data used narrative data analysis arriving at themes. The two sets of data were crossed referenced for outcomes, in order to comprehend the general data collected and form triangulation conclusions.
Recommendation was made for future research.