Effectiveness of emotion regulation training on school burnout, social acceptance and affection of students with learning disabilities

Aim: The research aim was to investigate effectiveness of emotion regulation training in reducing school burnout and improving social acceptance and affection of students with learning disabilities. Research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, and control group and follow-up. Statistical population consisted of 513 third- to fifth-grade male primary students with all kinds of learning disabilities who had been referred by the schools to the center for learning disabilities of Bushehr province’s Department of education in 2016-2017 school year. Of these, using convenience sampling and considering requirements of research project, 160 students were short-listed in the first stage, and of these, 34 students were selected and assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Measurement tools were Breso, Salanova & Schoufeli’s school burnout questionnaire (2007), Ford and Rabin’s social acceptance questionnaire 1970, Williams, Chambless & Ahrens’s affective scale (1997), Allen, McHugh and Barlow’s emotion regulation training scheme 2009. The experimental group subjects received eight weekly 90-minute sessions of emotion regulation training. Data gathered from questionnaires filled out by both groups were analyzed in three stages using repeated measures Findings showed that emotion regulation training has a significant effect on school burnout (F= 3.232, P= 0.013), social acceptance (F= 4.467, P= 0.001) and affection (F= 4.327, P= 0.021) and this effect remains unchanged in the two-month follow-up phase. Since emotion regulation training helps improves individuals’ interactions with peers and increases their awareness, acceptance and emotional expression, such training can be used as an effective intervention method to reduce school burnout and to improve social acceptance and emotions of students with various learning and other disabilities.