Comparison of Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Difficulty in Regulating Emotion in Female Students with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on emotion regulation difficulty in high school girl students with   oppositional defiant disorder. The statistical population included all high school girl students in Ramhormoz city in the academic year of 2018-2019. Subjects were selected by random sampling method from girls   high schools in Ramhormoz city. The research method was an experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group design. The sample number for each group was about 20 subjects with   oppositional defiant disorder. Therapeutic methods at both levels of compassion-focused therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy were considered as independent variables and emotion regulation difficulty as a dependent variable.  Emotion Regulation Difficulty Scale (Gertz & Romer, 2004) was implemented to collect data. The first experimental group was treated with compassion-focused therapy of Gilbert (2014) and the second experimental group was treated with acceptance and commitment therapy of Hayes et al. (2012). Compassion-focused therapy sessions were performed in 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week and acceptance and commitment therapy was performed in 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week. Multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance and Ben Foroni post hoc test were used Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 24 and the significance level was equal/less than 0.05. The results showed the efficacy of both therapies on emotion regulation difficulty in female high school students with oppositional defiant disorder and the superiority of acceptance and commitment therapy over compassion-focused therapy.