Journal of Modern Psychology

Journal of Modern Psychology

Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Academic Anxiety of Children with Learning Disorders

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Ph.D., Department of Physical Rehabilitation, Massage and Health-Improving Physical Culture, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
 
Objective: Reports showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy effectively helps patients overcome a wide variety of maladaptive behaviors, such as anxiety. The present study aimed to further examine this issue by exploring the effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy on the academic anxiety of children with learning disorders.
Methods: The quasi-experimental research design was a pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population included 32 children (9-13 years) with academic anxiety (mild, moderate, and severe) who were selected by a convenience sampling method and randomly (using a coin-throwing method) assigned to two experimental and control groups. The standard School Anxiety Scale questionnaire was used to measure academic anxiety. The behavioral-cognitive therapy program was implemented over 12 sessions, consisting of 3 sessions of 45 minutes each per week, for the experimental group. After the intervention, all participants participated in a posttest. Paired sample t-test, independent t-test, and analysis of covariance were used to analyze data.
Results: The average of academic anxiety before the intervention in the experimental and control groups was 23.94±2.18 and 22.87±3.64, respectively, and the independent t-test did not show a significant difference (P=0.39). The average of the groups showed that the academic anxiety scores of the experimental group had decreased compared to the pre-test scores (t=16.58, P<0.001). Finally, the results of ANCOVA presented that cognitive-behavioral therapy has led to a reduction in academic anxiety (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Reconstructing children’s thoughts and beliefs helps them to identify their wrong thoughts about the exam and gradually replace them with correct beliefs and thoughts. Therefore, teachers and practitioners can use cognitive-behavioral therapy to help children with learning disorders have less anxiety without feeling hurt from the negative evaluation of others.
Keywords

Subjects


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  • Receive Date 23 October 2024
  • Revise Date 21 November 2024
  • Accept Date 24 December 2024