the effect of parent-child interaction therapy on separation anxiety in 3-6-year-old children of nurses

Background: separation anxiety disorder is considered as the most common anxiety disorder in childhood. failure to treat this disorder in early age can be converted into a risk factor for childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders. objectives: this study aimed at investigating the effect of parent-child interaction therapy on reducing the symptoms of separation anxiety disorder among the nurses’ children aged between 3 and 6 years old working in educational hospitals in qazvin. methods: the intervention was designed as pre- and post-test along with the control group. the sample included 67 children aged 3 - 6 years’ old who were divided into intervention and control groups using the blocking method. the intervention consists of three steps: child directed interaction, bravery directed interaction and parent directed interaction which was performed for 8 sessions per weak. no intervention was performed for the control group. the obtained data were collected using the spence questionnaire (parents’ version) and the results were evaluated. results: intervention therapy significantly reduced the symptoms of separation anxiety in the intervention group at the post-test stage compared to the control group. the mean of separation anxiety decreased from 10.82±0.62 to 7.69±0.52 in the intervention group. conclusions: parent-child interaction therapy can be used as an effective treatment plan to reduce the symptoms of separation anxiety disorder among preschool children.