Effectiveness of Child-Centered Mindfulness Therapy on The Aggression and Cortisol Level of the Children with Cancer After Drug Therapy

Purpose: Emergence of chronic physiologic diseases such as cancer results in psychological distress for the inflected children. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate child-centered mindfulness therapy on the aggression and cortisol level after drug therapy in the children with cancer. Method: The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, control group and two-month follow-up design. The statistical population of the present study included all the children with cancer in 2018 in the city of Isfahan who referred to Omid therapy center and received drug therapy. The sample size was 30 children with cancer who were selected through convenient sampling method and randomly replaced into experimental and control group (15 children in experimental and 15 in the control group). The experimental group received 60-minute therapeutic interventions related to child-centered mindfulness during two-an-a-half months once a week, while the control group didn’t receive any psychological intervention during the study. Then the people in both groups took the posttest. The follow-up stage was administered after two months. The applied instruments included children’s aggression questionnaire (Shahim, 2007). The data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics and repeated measurement ANOVA. Findings: The results showed that child-centered mindfulness therapy has significantly influenced the aggression and cortisol level after drug therapy of the children with cancer (p<0.001) in a way that this treatment was able to decrease aggression and cortisol level of the children with cancer. Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that mindfulness therapy can be used as an efficient treatment to decrease the children’s aggression and cortisol level in the children with cancer through employing techniques such as thoughts, emotions and mindful behavior.