Comparison of the Effectiveness of "Metacognitive Therapy" and "Emotion-Focused Therapy" on Ruminant Response High School Male Students

Ruminant response is a repetitive response that appears to be controllable through psychotherapy. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of "Metacognitive Therapy" and "Emotion-Focused Therapy" on ruminant response of high school male students in the academic year 2019-2020. 

The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up design for 1 month and the control group. The statistical population included all high school students in Afshar region of Khodabandeh city in the academic year 2019-2020. The sample of the study was randomly selected from 5 districts of Khodabandeh city by cluster random method. From the high school boys of the first period of Afshar region of Khodabandeh city, 3 schools were randomly selected and 60 people from each school were selected by simple random sampling. The pretest was then performed by distributing the "Ruminant Response Scale". Among the individuals whose scores above 44 were in the range of 22 to 88, 45 people were randomly replaced by a simple random lottery in 3 groups of 15 people in intervention 1, intervention 2 and control. Data collection instruments included demographic questionnaire and "Ruminative Response Scale. Content validity was assessed by qualitative method and reliability by internal consistency method by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The subjects of intervention group 1 participated in the group training sessions of "Metacognitive Therapy" in 8 sessions of 90 minutes and the group of intervention 2 participated in the sessions of “Emotion-Focused Therapy” in 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week. For the control group, training sessions were held after the end of the sessions and taking the test. At the end of the sessions, post-test and one-month follow-up were performed for all 3 groups. Data were analyzed in SPSS. 24.

"Metacognitive Therapy" and "Emotion-Focused Therapy" were able to reduce the students' ruminant response to the control group (P ≤ 0.001). In this reduction, both of the above methods were statistically the same.  

"Metacognitive Therapy" and “Emotion-Focused Therapy" reduce students' ruminant response. Educational professionals can use these two methods to reduce students' rumination response and provide a basis for reducing psychological problems.