A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Psychological Interventions in Reducing Emotional Problems in Students with Specific Learning Disorders in the Period of 2009-2018

Due to their mistakes while learning, students with specific learning disorders continually show signs of stress and, compared to normal students, more emotional problems and lower self-confidence. This makes the discovery of the most appropriate forms of psychological interventions aiming to reduce these students' emotional problems even more essential. The present research intends to study the effectiveness of psychological interventions in reducing emotional problems in students with specific learning disorders. By taking a meta-analysis approach, this research has endeavored to integrate the results obtained by various other studies. The sample size for meta-analysis consisted of 25 studies which were selected as methodologically acceptable from among 35 studies. Meta-analysis checklists were used. The research used in this meta-analysis have been based on 807 samples and 25 size effects. The results obtained from the meta-analysis show the size effect of psychological interventions upon reducing the emotional problems of students with specific learning disorders to be d=1.222 (p≤ 0.001) quite effective according to Cohen’s table. According to the findings, the study conducted by Ghazi Asgar et al. (2009) entitled “The Effect of Immune Training against Stress on the Anxiety and Mathematical Performance of Schoolgirls Incapable of Learning Mathematics” enjoyed the highest effect size (1.81), while the research conducted by Bigdeli et al. (2017) entitled “The Effectiveness of Using Games in Mathematical Problem Solving on Internal Incentives toward Problem Solving in Students with Disorders in Learning Mathematics” showed the lowest effect size (0.61). The results indicate that, considering the effectiveness of psychological interventions in reducing emotional problems in students with specific learning disorders, it is recommended that interventions with larger effect sizes be put to use.