Background & Objectives: Separation anxiety disorder, common in childhood and early adolescence, is characterized by an unrealistic, excessive fear of separation from a primary attachment figure (usually a parent), significantly interfering with daily activities and development. Although the research literature on the etiology, maintaining factors, and related aspects of childhood anxiety and its associated problems has grown markedly in recent years, several dimensions of it—especially in relation to executive functions—have remained unclear. Anxiety is of considerable importance in the cognitive domain because it is often associated with poorer performance on cognitive tasks, particularly higher–order cognitive functions such as creativity. Positive parenting program promotes a positive relationship between parents and children and helps parents learn effective management strategies for dealing with various developmental and behavioral problems in children. Therefore, understanding the risk and protective factors associated with separation anxiety in children can serve as a reference point for more effective prevention and intervention programs. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to determine the effectiveness of positive parenting on executive functions and creativity in children with separation anxiety disorder.

Methods: The present study used a quasi–experimental design with pretest–posttest and a one–month follow–up, along with a control group. The statistical population included students with symptoms of separation anxiety disorder referred to educational counseling centers and hubs in Tehran and their parents in 2024, who were selected purposefully and based on entry criteria and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The inclusion criteria were as follows: confirmation of the diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder by a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist working in counseling centers and counseling units of the General Education Department of Tehran, based on the child’s medical record; male and female students aged 10 to 12 years; obtaining a minimum score of 28 or higher on the Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory for Children (CPNI); full consent of mothers to participate themselves and allow their children to participate in the study; absence of diagnosable physical or motor impairments; and absence of acute physical illnesses, as determined through interviews with teachers. The exclusion criteria included absence from more than two treatment sessions, unwillingness to cooperate, incomplete completion of the study questionnaires, and lack of interest in carrying out the assignments and exercises included in the positive parenting training program sessions. Data from pretest and posttest in two groups were collected using the Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory for Children (CPNI) (Coolidge et al., 2002) and the Torrance Creative Thinking Tests (TCTT) (Torrance, 1998). For the mothers in the experimental group, the positive parenting training program was conducted over eight sessions, one two–hour session per week for two months. During this period, the control group received no training. To determine the content validity of the positive parenting program training package, the opinions of specialists in psychology were obtained and its content validity ratio was calculated. According to Lawshe’s method, the minimum acceptable content validity ratio based on the opinions of eight experts was 75%. In the present study, the content validity ratio was found to be 86.2. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software, version 27, at two levels: descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent samples t–test, chi–square test, analysis of variance with repeated measures, and Bonferroni post–hoc test). The significance level for the statistical tests was considered to be 0.05.

Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean pretest and posttest scores of executive functions and creativity in the experimental group compared with the control group (p < 0.001). In addition, in the experimental group, a significant difference was found between the mean posttest and follow–up scores for executive functions (p = 0.014) and creativity (p = 0.018), indicating that the effects of the intervention were strengthened over time.

Conclusion: The findings of the study highlight the important role of family–focused components in the psychotherapy of children and suggest that these components can be used to address cognitive problems in children with separation anxiety disorder.