The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Children's depression in Restructured Families: an Experimental Study

  Introduction: The formation of restructured families has many effects, but one of the worrying effects is the consequences of these families for children, who can expose them to emotional disorders such as depression, and failure to treat this depression in a timely manner, it can have lasting impacts on the childchr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s quality of life. The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on the depression of children in restructured families. Method: This research is a quasi-experimental (pre-test, post-test, follow-up with control group).Sample size consists of 20 children who were selected using purposeful sampling among eligible children and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (10 child) and control (10 child).The Achenbach questionnaire (parental form), was used to collect data.The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS-22 software. Results: The results of variance analysis with repeated measurements between the subjects of the experimental group and the control group showed a significant difference in the dependent variable, i.e., depression. Conclusions: According to the results of the study, it seems that cognitive-behavioral therapy has been able to reduce the rate of depression caused by environmental events related to the restructured family situation in children, using its techniques such as cognitive reconstruction, rumination reduction, problem-solving training, improving psychological awareness and psychological resilience as well as the ability to recognize and deal with emotions. Therefore, this treatment can be used as an effective treatment to reduce depression in children in these families.