Pages: 56-65

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of compassion-focused therapy of ‎mothers on aggression in children aged 4-6 years. The research method was a quasi-‎experimental, pre-test, post-test and follow-up with the experimental and control group. ‎The research population included all mothers with preschool children in Isfahan in ‎‎2018. Using a convenient sampling method, 30 mothers who had child with aggressive ‎symptoms were selected and randomly divided into two experimental and control ‎groups (each group included 15 subjects). The experimental group received ‎compassion- focused therapy for 12 sessions in group, 90 minutes per session, and the ‎control group did not receive any interventions. Demographic information ‎questionnaire and aggression questionnaire in pre-school children, designed by Vahedi ‎et al (2008), were used as the research tools. Data were analyzed using repeated ‎measures analysis of variance. The results revealed a significant difference among the ‎pre-test, post-test and follow-up scores in aggression, and the mean scores in the post-‎test and follow-up stages showed reduction compared with the mean score in pre-test ‎stage and the scores in these groups showed significant changes compared to control ‎group (p <0.05). These results were closer to the posttest in the one-month follow-up. ‎In general, it was found that compassion- focused therapy of mothers was effective on ‎children's aggression, because the parents' mental health and the quality of their ‎relationship could affect the quality of their children's life‎‎.