Mindfulness based Stress Reduction-Children (MBSR-C) on Emotional self-Regulation and Emotional Resilience in Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Emotion regulation is one of the most important problems in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim of this study was to investigate effectiveness of mindfulness based stress reduction–children (MBSR–C) on emotional self–regulation and emotional resilience in students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

in a semi–experimental study with pre–test–post–test design, 24 students with AD/HD selected by convenient sampling method, assigned to experimental, and control group randomly. The research instruments were child and youth resilience measure (CYRM) and emotion regulation checklist. MBSR–C program was used eight sessions on children with AD/HD and the control group did not receive any intervention. SPSS 18 was used for data processing and MANCOVA was used to analyze the data. The significance level was considered as 0.05 in all tests.

the results revealed that mindfulness based stress reduction had significant effect on emotional self–regulation (p<0.001) and emotional resilience (p<0.001) in patients with AD/HD. From resilience components, MBSR–C had significant effect only on caregiver components (p=0.030). As well as, from emotional self–regulation, MBSR had significant effect on emotional liability/negativity (L/N) (p<0.001) and emotion regulation (ER) (p<0.001). 

According to the results, it concluded that MBSR–C had effect on emotion modulation and regulation and enhancing of resilience of children with AD/HD. It is suggested that the mindfulness based stress reduction–children (MBSR–C) be used along with other interventions to regulate the negative emotions of these children.