effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (mbct) in reducing aggression of individuals at the juvenile correction and rehabilitation center

background: in the present era, delinquency in children and adolescents is undoubtedly a difficult and upsetting issue attracting the attention of many experts such as psychologists, sociologists, and criminologists. these experts often try to answer why a number of children and adolescents engage in various crimes such as aggressive and anti-social crimes. they also try to find out how these crimes can be prevented. objectives: the present study investigates the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy training (mbct) in reducing aggression in a juvenile correction and rehabilitation center of zahedan province during years 1991 to 1992. materials and methods: this experimental study included an experimental and a control group with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up approach. the buss and perry aggression questionnaire (1992) was used for data collection. the sample group included 22 (10 experimental and 12 control groups) adolescent males in a juvenile correction and rehabilitation center of zahedan province who were selected through a census method. using a matching method based on the pre-test scores of the aggression questionnaire, they were then divided into two equivalent categories and were randomly assigned to the two groups. mindfulness-based cognitive training took the group training in 8 sessions administered on experimental group. the follow-up test was conducted two weeks after the end of the posttest sessions. the results were analyzed using ancova. results: the results of ancova showed that mindfulness-based cognitive training could significantly reduce aggression during posttest and follow-up test phases in the experimental group, compared to the control group (p < 0.01). moreover, the results indicated the effectiveness of this method in significantly reducing anger, physical aggression, and hostility during posttest and follow-up test phases (p < 0.05). however, no significant reduction was observed in the verbal aggression subscale. conclusions: according to the results of the present study, mindfulness-based cognitive training seems to be effective for reducing aggressive behaviors.