The Effect of Schema Therapy on Reducing NegativeAttribution Style and Cognitive Avoidance of Students withSpecific Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this research was to effect schema therapy on reducing negative attribution style and cognitive avoidance of students with specific learning disabilities.

The research design was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with control group. The statistical population included all students with specific learning disabilities in Dezful city, from among whom 30 were purposefully selected and tested in two groups of 15 each. The research instrument was children's attribution style questionnaire (Thompson et al., 1998) and cognitive avoidance (Sexton and Douglas, 2008). First, the pre-test was conducted in two groups and then the experimental group was trained in schema therapy for 8 sessions. These meetings were held in groups and weekly. At the end, both groups were evaluated in the post-test.

The results of univariate covariance analysis showed that the schema therapy program reduced the negative attribution style and cognitive avoidance of students with specific learning disorder (P<0.001).

According to the obtained results, it can be concluded that schema therapy training is an effective treatment for reducing the negative and avoidant attribution style and generally improve mentally healthy.