The Effectiveness of Teaching Strategies Based on Emotion-Focused Therapy on the Components of Verbal Intelligence and Aggression in Preschool Students

One of the main reasons for families of preschool children to go to counseling and psychotherapy centers is problems related to their children’s aggressive and inattentive behaviors and lack of concentration. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching strategies based on emotion-focused therapy on components of verbal intelligence and aggression in preschool children. Method: The method of this research was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with two experimental and control groups. The statistical population of the study consisted of all 4 to 6-year-old preschool children in in 2018. The research sample consisted of 50 children from the statistical population who were selected by convenience sampling method. Then they were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups (25 people in each group). The children in the experimental group received emotion-based treatment strategies for ten sessions while the control group underwent no intervention. The two groups answered the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (1998) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV; 2012) before and after the training process. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Mean and standard deviation) and analysis of covariance. Results: The results showed that teaching strategies based on emotion-focused treatment has a significant effect on components of verbal intelligence (F=21.20) and aggression (F=23.98) in preschool children (P <0.01). The results of effect size showed that emotion-focused strategies had 43% effect on components of verbal intelligence and 51% on children's aggression. Conclusion: Teaching strategies based on emotion-focused therapy due to the emphasis on basic emotions as an enhancer of components of verbal intelligence facilitates learning and is an effective factor in reducing aggression and problems of aggressive students.