The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on cognitive emotion regulation in preschool children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Student M.A. Department of Exceptional Children Psychology, Ker.C., Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

2 Assistant Prof. Department of Exceptional Children Psychology, Ker.C., Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on emotion regulation in preschool children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Kermanshah. The study employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study population consisted of children showing symptoms of ADHD who were referred to comprehensive assessment, education and rehabilitation, and early developmental-educational intervention centers in Kermanshah for school-entry assessment. A total of 30 children were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=15) and a control group (n=15). The experimental group received a 12-session cognitive-behavioral play therapy intervention, conducted weekly, with each session lasting 40 minutes, while the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire developed by Junghänel et al. (2022). For data analysis, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to examine the total emotion regulation score, while multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was employed to examine the subscales of emotion regulation. The results showed that, after controlling for the pretest scores, cognitive-behavioral play therapy significantly improved emotion regulation in the experimental group compared with the control group. Furthermore, cognitive-behavioral play therapy had significant effects on the distraction, problem-solving, and social-support dimensions (P<0.05), but no significant effect was found on the ineffective-strategies dimension. Overall, cognitive-behavioral play therapy can be considered an effective psychological intervention for enhancing emotion regulation capacities in children with ADHD. Based on these findings, it is recommended that this intervention protocol be incorporated into rehabilitation and educational programs for children with ADHD.

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History

  • Receive Date: 02 September 2026
  • Revise Date: 08 September 2026
  • Accept Date: 12 September 2026

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