The effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Empathy Training on Aggression in Preschool Children

Aggression is formed as a reaction to external pressures in childhood and continues as a behavioral habit in adulthood if not corrected. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of group empathy training based on the cognitive-behavioral approach in preschool children's aggression. The present study is a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest, and follow-up. The statistical population includes all children in preschool in the Isfahan Education District Four in the academic year 2019-2020. Thirty children were selected via the students who had a lower score on the Cognitive-Emotional-Parent-Empires Scale and a higher score on the Aggression Scale and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of empathy group training based on the cognitive-behavioral approach and a post-test was conducted. After 45 days, the tests were repeated and the test results were analyzed SPSS-23 software and analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results showed that in aggression and all three components including communication, overt and sociable, the difference between the experimental and control groups in both post-test and follow-up stages is significant(p<0.001), so it can be said that Cognitive-behavioral group training has a significant effect on improving aggression and its dimensions after the test, and the effects of training on follow-up remain. The results of this study emphasize the effectiveness of group empathy training with the cognitive-behavioral method in reducing aggression and improving the behavioral performance of preschool children and creating new methods in clinical interventions for children.