Mindfulness Therapy on the Level of Social Anxiety and Self-Esteem of Elementary School Students with Learning Disorder

In mental health research, mindfulness is considered as a self-awareness that promote self-esteem. Social anxiety disorder is the most common type of anxiety disorder that affects the person's social performance. One of the most common causes of childhood disability is learning disabilities. These children are typically faced with problems such as academic, cognitive and emotional backgrounds. In addition, social anxiety disorder is a common disorder and causes to the isolation of the patient and loss of its efficacy. In the formation of social anxiety disorder, various factors are involved. Identification of these factors can contribute to effective treatment and coping with this disorder. Social anxiety is a chronic disorder that is known as an overlooked disorder, which is a major disorder in work and social domains and is a risk factor for the development of depression. The failure of students to do their tasks is a major issue that influence from school and the family. These discomforts about the failure of learning and its topics are one of the most common learning problems. Cognitive therapy based on mindfulness is a new approach in explaining the cognitive-behavioral therapy approach. Mindfulness means that a person focuses his consciousness from past and future to present. Mentally education requires metacognitive learning and new behavioral strategies to focus on attention, prevent rumors of thought and tend to be disturbing responses, and develop new thoughts and reduce unpleasant excitement. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy on the level of social anxiety and self-esteem of elementary students (from 4th to 6th grade) with learning disorder.

This study was a semi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The statistical population of this study included all students with learning disabilities, in the elementary school of the fourth to sixth grade of Shadegan city (Khuzestan province Southwest of Iran) in 2018-2019. In this study, among the educational districts, two boys' elementary schools of district 1 were randomly selected. Sampling method was multi-stage cluster. First step was selection of a region (region 1) from Shadegan's education areas, after that selection of two elementary schools from primary schools in district 1. The third step was to select 30 of 90 elementary students who performed social anxiety and self-esteem tests on them and their social anxiety score was higher than the third quartile (above 50) in this test. At the same time students had to learning disorders based on clinical interview and physical problems. A total of 90 students with learning disabilities filled out questionnaires and then 30 people with the highest score were entered randomly to two groups of experiment (mindfulness intervention program) and control. The experimental group received a program of mindfulness intervention in 8 sessions of 90 minutes, but control group was without intervention. After the intervention period, a post-test was conducted for both groups. Data were collected from two questionnaires of the social anxiety scale (LSAS) (1987) and Cooper-Smith's self-esteem questionnaire (1996). Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and SPSS 18 software at a significant level of =α0.05.

According to the scores of all variables, the mean standard deviation (SD) of total social anxiety score in pre and post-test in the experimental group was 54.46±12.07, 42.6±7.54, respectively. Mean SD the pre and posttest scores of total social anxiety in the control group was 50±8.39, 52.46±7.99, respectively. The mean SD of total self-esteem score in pre and post-test in the experimental group was 22.2±5.35, 36.47±4.59, respectively. Also, the mean (pre-test) pre- and post-test score of total self-esteem in the control group, it was 21.8±3.43, 23.33±3.85, respectively. Multivariate covariance analysis indicated that the intervention program of mindfulness education was effective in reducing social anxiety and increasing self-esteem of students with learning disabilities (p<0.001).

Based on the findings of this study, it could be concluded that the education of mindfulness improved students with social anxiety learning disorder and their self-esteem. Therefore, it provides the groundwork for using this method in a psychological center for students with social anxiety.