Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Social Competence in Children with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

Disruptive mood dysregulation is one of the mood disorders which causes functional problems and has many treatment challenges. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of schema therapy on emotion regulation and social competence in children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.

This study employed a quasi-experimental research design with a pretest-posttest, follow-up, and a control group. The statistical population consisted of 8-11-year-old boys with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder in Isfahan, Iran, and their mothers who were referred to specialized child counseling centers in Isfahan. Thirty children and their mothers were selected purposefully and then randomly placed in two groups of 15 (one experimental group and one control group). The research tools included the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Garnefski et al. (2007) and the Perceived Social Competence Scale by Anderson Boucher et al. (2007). The experimental group was treated in 10 sessions (60 min for the child and 30 min for the mother), and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance.

The results showed that the effect of schema therapy on emotional regulation and social competence was significant and remained stable in the follow-up phase (P<0.001).

According to the results of this study, schema therapy can be used to improve the emotional regulation and social competence of children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.