Introduction: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder often show major problems in emotional and cognitive abilities, which have serious consequences on their academic and social performance. Therefore, growing efforts are being made to improve these abilities through neuro-psychological interventions to prepare these children for future challenges. This research aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program with/and without transcranial brain stimulation on emotional self-regulation and problem-solving performance in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Materials and Methods: The current research was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included all students aged 11 to 14 who were referred to the counseling centers in Khoy, Iran between 2021 and 2022. Forty-five children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder of the mixed type were selected among the individuals who enter the treatment in these centers by the purposeful sampling method and randomly replaced into one control and two experimental groups. Subjects in the first experimental groups received a mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program combined with transcranial direct current stimulation while the second group received a mindfulness-based social-emotional learning for 8 weeks. In addition the subjects in the control group did not receive any intervention. All subjects were evaluated before and after the training using the emotional regulation checklist and the Tower of London test.
Results: The mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program combined with transcranial stimulation exerted greater effectiveness on emotional self-regulation and problem-solving performance compared to the other groups. Moreover, the mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program had more effect on emotional self-regulation and problem-solving performance compared to the control group.
Conclusion: The mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program combined with transcranial stimulation is an effective intervention to improve the emotional and cognitive functions in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In clinical settings, the combination of these two interventions can be used to achieve promising results.
