The Effectiveness of Training Facial Emotion Patterns on Reducing Temper in Children with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorders include persistent instability and recurrent periods of uncontrolled temper that have recently been diagnosed in children and adolescents. These people have major problems labeling facial expressions and interpreting vague cues, various trainings on emotional cognitive cues can be effective in reducing their irritability and temper.

The present study was an experimental and its population consists of boys with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder between 6-12 years old. The number of samples in the training group includes 8 boys with mood disorders referred to psychotherapy clinics in Shiraz and was selected by purposed sampling method and according to the inclusion and exit criteria of the project. Then according to parental consent to participate in training they were divided into two groups (4 boys in the experimental group and 4 boys in the control group). The instruments included the Children's Temper Questionnaire (Nelson et al, 2000), which was used as a pretest and posttest. Finally, the experimental group received 8 training sessions (two sessions per week and about 45 minutes per session). The data analyzed by independent groups t-test.

Training the emotional face patterns has reduced the level of temper in children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorders (P>0/01).

Teaching emotional face patterns can be used as an intervention method in reducing the temper of boys with disorder of mood disorders.