effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in behavioral-emotional problem, cognitive-emotional regulation strategies, and mind wandering of 9 to 13-year-old children with adhd: a quasi-experimental study

Background: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in school-aged children. objectives: this study assessed the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in behavioral-emotional problems, cognitive-emotional regulation strategies, and mind wandering in children with adhd. methods: this quasi-experimental study utilized a pretest-posttest design with a control group. the statistical population comprised all students referred to the west health center of ahvaz in 2019. a sample of 45 patients was selected and randomly divided into intervention (mct, n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. the experimental group underwent eight sessions (90-minute sessions per week) of mct, and the control group did not receive any intervention. the research instruments included the cognitive-emotional regulation questionnaire-children form (cerq-k-p), rutter children behavior questionnaire (rcbq), and mind wandering questionnaire (mwq). multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. results: the participants included 30 children aged 10.92 ± 2.02 years. in the experimental group, the average score of behavioral-emotional disorder changed from 30.78 to 24.14, cognitive-emotional regulation strategies from 58.34 to 69.43, and mental wandering from 78.18 to 85.14. in the control group, the average score of rcbq changed from 29.17 to 30.58, cerq-k-p from 54.5 to 52.34, and mwq from 19.77 to 19.87. the mct effectively reduced behavior-emotional problems and mind wandering and improved cognitive-emotional regulation strategies in children with adhd (p < 0.05). conclusions: metacognitive therapy improved behavioral-emotional problems, cognitive-emotional regulation strategies, and mind wandering in adhd children. therefore, metacognitive and psychiatric treatments are recommended for these patients.