Development and validation of a psychomotor intervention program and its effects on working memory, attention, and symptoms of overt anxiety in anxious female students

Anxiety disorders are the most common problems among children, with several adverse consequences.

The present study aimed to develop and validate a psychomotor intervention program and to investigate its effectiveness on anxiety, working memory, and attention in anxious female students.

This study was performed in two stages. First, a psychomotor intervention program was developed, and for validation, its content validity was examined. Next, the quasi-experimental method with a control group, pretest-posttest follow-up design was used. The statistical population of the study included all female elementary school students in District 6 of Tehran, Iran, in 2021. A total of 40 students were purposefully selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups. The psychomotor intervention was performed in 10 sessions (60 minutes per session). The Overt Anxiety Questionnaire, Stroop Test, Wechsler Subtests, and Visual Memory Test were used to collect data. For statistical analysis, repeated measures analysis of variance was performed in SPSS-22.

The results showed that the intervention program had adequate content validity and could significantly reduce anxiety (F=224.28, P<0.001) and improve working memory (F=24.25, P>0.001) and attention (F=9.67, P<0.001); its effects persisted until the follow-up.

Overall, psychomotor therapy could improve anxiety, attention, and working memory. Therefore, it may be used as a valid and effective intervention for managing anxiety and improving the students cognitive function.