Effectiveness of a Mother-Child Interaction Instructional Program based on the Secure Attachment Style on Attachment Components of Students with Anxiety Disorders

Modifying the child's attachment style is one of the ways to reduce the damage caused by disorders and negative emotions. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the mother-child interaction instructional program based on the secure attachment style on the attachment components of elementary school students with anxiety disorders.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and follow-up with the control group. The statistical population consisted of female elementary school students with anxiety disorders in district 3 of Tehran City, Iran, who, from September 2020 to June 2021, were studying in the second or third grades of elementary school. Using the purposeful sampling method, 30 mother-child pairs were chosen as a sample based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n = 15 per group). In the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages, participants completed the Kinship Center Attachment Questionnaire (Kappenberg & Halpern, 2006). The mother-child interaction instructional program based on secure attachment style was conducted with the experimental group in twelve 60-minute sessions for mothers and eleven 30-minute sessions for mothers and children, while the control group did not receive any intervention. At the end of the 12 sessions, both experimental and control groups were assessed by posttest and follow-up. Repeated measurement analysis of variance and the Bonferroni post hoc test were utilized to evaluate the obtained data.

The results indicated a significant difference in attachment component scores between the control and experimental groups at the posttest (p<0/05). Furthermore, the result of the Bonferroni post hoc test showed that the impact of the instructional program on attachment components was consistent until the follow-up (p<0/05).

With regards to the present study`s findings, it can be concluded that the designed intervention program emphasizing secure attachment style led to the improvement of attachment style in primary school students with anxiety disorders. As a result, this instructional program can be used as a suitable intervention to improve the attachment problems of children with anxiety disorders in elementary school.