Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the anger rumination, hostile attribution and aggression in immigrant children

Abstract

Background: Immigration is one of the social determinants of health. It affects the mental health very seriously. The present study was aimed to investigating the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on anger rumination, hostile attribution bias, and aggression of immigrant children. Method: The present study was conducted through a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental method with a control group. It was done on a 24-subject sample of immigrant children selected by targeted sampling and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. Measurement tools were the anger rumination scale, the hostile attribution scale, and Aggression Questionnaire of Buss and Perry. The experimental group then received acceptance and commitment therapy in eight 90-min sessions while the control group received no treatment. After holding the sessions, the experimental and control groups again completed the three questionnaires as post-test; and data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and SPSS software version 24. Results: In the posttest, acceptance and commitment therapy reduced the anger rumination, hostile attribution bias and aggression variables of immigrant children in the experimental group compared to the control group (p <0.05). Conclusion: It could be concluded that acceptance and commitment treatment is effective on anger rumination, hostile attribution bias, and aggression of immigrant children.

Keywords

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Aggression
• Anger Management Therapy
• Mental Health Centers
• Violence