Investigating the Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Anxiety of 8- to 11-Year-Old Children of Divorced Families

Khodsiani, Leila; Saeidmanesh , Mohsen

Volume 15 - Articles-1404 MEJDS (2025) 15: 33 | Back to browse issues page

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Khodsiani L, Saeidmanesh M. Investigating the Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Anxiety of 8- to 11-Year-Old Children of Divorced Families. MEJDS 2025; 15 (0) :33-33
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-3299-en.html

Investigating the Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Anxiety of 8- to 11-Year-Old Children of Divorced Families

Leila Khodsiani¹

, Mohsen Saeidmanesh ^*²

1- MSc in Clinical Psychology, Science and Arts University, Yazd, Iran
2- Associate Professor, Science and Arts University, Yazd, Iran

Abstract: (790 Views)

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Parental divorce has many negative consequences in the short and long term. Compared to children from non–divorced families, children and adolescents from divorced families show more internalizing and externalizing problems, lower academic achievement, or more attachment insecurity in the short term. In the long term, parental divorce as a negative factor causes various psychological issues for children in adulthood. Unfortunately, in today's world, divorce is increasing day by day, and more children have to adapt to the new style and distance of parents from each other. Divorced children have many psychological and behavioral problems, and it seems necessary to attend to the treatment of these children. Anxiety can lead to more psychological problems and mood problems in the future of these children. Considering the various treatments that have been done for these children so far, no study has been conducted to investigate the effect of direct transcranial electrical stimulation of the brain on the anxiety of divorced children. Therefore, this research aimed to examine the effectiveness of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on the anxiety of 8– to 11–year–old children with divorced families.
Methods: This research was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest design with a control group. Among children aged 8 to 11 years with divorced families referring to the psychiatric clinics of Isfahan City, 30 qualified volunteers were included in the study with the available sampling method. Then, 15 were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 15 to the control group. The inclusion criteria were as follows: having a divorced family; age range 8–11 years; not using other treatment methods such as medication and psychotherapy. The exclusion criteria were as follows: missing a session of tDCS and not completing the questionnaire during the study. Anxiety variable scores were compared using the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale–Child Version (SCAS–Child) (Spence, 1997) at two time points before and after tDCS. An initial assessment of each child was conducted on the first day and lasted 1.5 hours. Family history and previous treatments were also recorded in each child's file. Before the study began, all subjects signed a sample consent form and were assured that their clinical information would remain confidential in the file. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 17. The descriptive statistics section extracted the mean and standard deviation of the scores related to the variables. Then, in the inferential statistics section, data analysis was performed using the analysis of covariance. Before performing the analysis of covariance, its assumptions were checked using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Levene's tests, homogeneity of group interaction effect, and pretest of the slope of the regression lines. The significance level of the tests was set at 0.05.
Results: Data analysis showed that the score of the SCAS–Child version in the intervention group and after receiving tDCS decreased significantly compared to the control group (p<0.001). Based on the effect size results, 68% of the difference between the intervention and control groups in the anxiety variable was due to the implementation of tDCS.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that tDCS can be used as a treatment to improve anxiety in boys from divorced families.

Keywords: Transcranial direct current stimulation, Anxiety, Divorced children

Full-Text [PDF 262 kb] (68 Downloads)

Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Rehabilitation

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