The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Children with Chronic Pain on the Internalizing Symptoms of 7 to 12 Year-Old Children

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy for children with chronic pain on internalizing symptoms of 7 to 12 year-old children. In this quasi-experimental study, a number of children suffering from chronic pain were selected by available sampling method from specialty and subspecialty pediatric hospitals of Tehran (Such as Children's Mofid, Children's Medical Center, Hazrat Ali Asghar and Bahrami), in 2014. Then, among the children, 20 children who according to their parents were prepared to participate in this study and met the inclusion criteria, were selected and placed in the experimental group (n = 10) and control group (n = 10). The CHACT protocol applied on the experiment group, for 8 sessions. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was administered in both groups at the pre-test, post-test, first and second follow-up (Respectively, 1.5 and 5 months after treatment) and analyzed with MANCOVA analysis of variance. The results showed that the experimental group compared with the control group showed significant change in internalizing symptoms in multiple stages. These changes continued after the treatment, first and secondary follow-up. Generally, it can be said that this protocol can be used in clinical fields, especially in the area of ​​improving the internalizing symptoms of children.