Effectiveness of Mindfulness and Attention Bias Program on Attention, Inhibition and Emotional Regulation in Children with General Anxiety Disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness and attention bias program on attention, inhibition and emotional control in children with generalized anxiety disorder. This study was performed with pre-test post-test design with control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of children with generalized anxiety disorder referred to psychology clinics in Tehran 20th district. And samples include 20 people of this children that chosen by convenient method. The experimental group received 8 sessions of mindfulness and attention bias program for 8 sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention. Parents of all participant completed Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function on the pre-test and post-test. Data were analyzed at two levels of descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (covariance analysis). The results of this study showed that mindfulness and attention bias program had an impact on attention, inhibition and emotion control in children with generalized anxiety disorder. Therefore, according to the findings of this study, the use of this type of treatment is recommended to specialists in this field