Effectiveness of Cognitive Therapy According to Dougas Model on Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Emotion Regulation in the Students with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Background: The emergence of generalized anxiety disorder in the students causes development of other psychological and cognitive harms. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on Dougas model on Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Emotion Regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and control group design. The statistical population included students with generalized anxiety disorder studying in the city of Isfahan in the academic year 2017-18. 30 students with generalized anxiety disorder were selected from the statistical population through purposive non-random sampling method and were randomly placed into experimental and control groups (15 students in the experimental and 15 in the control group). The experimental group received twelve ninety-minute sessions of therapy interventions related to cognitive therapy based on Dougas model during three months once a week, while the control group did not receive any intervention during the study. The applied instruments included generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire, emotion-regulation questionnaire, and meta-cognitive beliefs questionnaire. Data analysis from the study was done via SPSS23 software through Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance) method. Results: The results of data analysis showed that cognitive therapy based on Dougas model could significantly influence meta-cognitive beliefs and emotion regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder (p 0.001), as this therapy could lead to an increase in meta-cognitive beliefs and emotion regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder. The effect size of this treatment on metacognitive beliefs and emotional adjustment was 0.72 and 0.80, respectively. Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, it is suggested to apply cognitive therapy based on Dougas model as an efficient method in order to enhance meta-cognitive beliefs and emotion regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder.