Effectiveness of attributional retraining on mental health of male middle school students with divorced parents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of attributional retraining on mental health of children of divorced parents. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test and control group. The population included male children of divorced parents who studied in middle schools in Sari (2016). The sample comprised of 34 individuals who were selected through convenience sampling method, and assigned into two groups of 17 (experimental and control groups). Both groups completed General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Then, the experimental group received attributional retraining educational package for 11 sessions of 45-minutes. After the intervention, both groups were assessed once more. The data were analysed through multivariate analysis of covariance. The findings demonstrated that attributional retraining significantly improves all components of mental health (psychosomatic symptoms, anxiety, social functioning problems, and depression symptoms) in the experimental group members.