Background & objective: Academic self-handicapping is a major cause of academic failure among students with learning disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of cognitive-behavioral programs on debilitating motivational behavior and academic self-handicapping among students with learning disabilities.
Methods: This is a time-interval pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. The population of the study included all female high school students in Tehran- Iran in the school year 2014-2015. A total of 44 participants with learning disabilities were recruited from among the students with low scores on Martin’s Motivation Scale. The participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The research instrument was Martin’s Motivation and Enthusiasm scale (2012). Factor analysis was used to estimate the validly of the research tool. The utility of the 11 factors were demonstrated as follows: task management, scheduling, stand, valuation, focused learning, self-confidence and ability to express passion, self-sabotage, anxiety, avoidance of defeat and uncertain control. The result of factor analysis also revealed four clusters as follows: behavior amplifiers, amplifiers thinking, behavior debilitating, and disabling think. The participants in the control group received Martin program on cognitive behavioral treatments in 16 sessions of 60 minutes once a week. Follow-up post-test was administered in 2 month intervals.
Results: The results showed significant difference between the control and experimental groups in debilitating motivational behavior across three time-intervals (p<0.001). Although a significant difference was also found between the control and experimental group in academic self-handicapping, no difference was found between time intervals in either control or experimental group.
Conclusion: In can be concluded that students with learning disabilities benefit from Martin program on cognitive behavioral treatments in reducing debilitating motivational behavior and academic self-handicapping.
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