The effectiveness of emotional cognitive-behavioral therapy (ECBT) on reducing test anxiety and its components in students with special learning disabilities

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (ECBT) on test anxiety components in students with specific learning disorders (SLD). This research was an experimental study with pre- and post-test and a control group. The population of the present study was all fourth to sixth grade elementary students of two learning disabilities centers under the supervision of education office in district 2 of Rasht who had referred to improve their learning disabilities and were studying in the academic year 2018-2019. The sample included 30 students with specific learning disorders (SLD) who were selected through availability sampling and classified into two groups: experimental group (n=20) and control group (n=20). For data collection, we used Brooks (2015) test anxiety questionnaire. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed the emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective in reducing the components of test anxiety in students with specific learning disorders. Based on the obtained results, it can be said that emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy can decrease the test anxiety of these students by making changes in inconsistent cognitive thoughts and distortions using emotion regulation techniques.