Developing Early Intervention Program Based on Cognitive-Behavioral Theory in Children of Divorce with Emotional-Behavioral Disorders and Its Effectiveness on Social Adjustment of Children of Divorce: A Descriptive Study

Divorce can lead to many behavioral and psychological problems in children. The aim of the current study was to develop early intervention program based on cognitive-behavioral theory in children of divorce with emotional-behavioral disorders and determine its effectiveness in social adjustment of children of divorce.

In the current descriptive study, the statistical population included all articles and the professors of psychology, in the qualitative part, and all the girls of divorced families of Astaneh-Ashrafiyeh City, in the quantitative part, in 2022. Moreover, 30 children of divorce were selected by random sampling and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The experimental group was trained in 12 90-minute sessions, twice a week, and the control group did not receive any training. Data was collected in pre-test and post-test using Achenbach’s Child Behavioral Checklist (2001) and Dokhanchi's Social Adjustment Questionnaire (1998). The data were analyzed by thematic analysis and univariate analysis of covariance in the qualitative and quantitative parts, respectively.

The findings demonstrated  that the mean and standard deviation of social adjustment scores in the experimental group increased from 98.33±1.90 in the pre-test to 104.33±1.08 in the post-test, and in the control group from 98.07±1.67 in the pre-test to 98.53±1.40 in the post-test (p<0.001).

Based on the results of the present study, the early intervention program based on cognitive-behavioral theory of children of divorce with emotional-behavioral disorders was effective on the increase of social adjustment of these children. Therefore, this program can be implemented as an effective program to improve the social adjustment of children of divorce.