The effectiveness of compassion focused therapy on self-blame, guilt, and impulsive behaviors of adolescents with adverse childhood experiences

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on self-blame. Guilt, and impulsive behaviors of adolescents with adverse childhood experiences. The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-tested and post-tested design control group. The statistical population included all the Islamic Azad University of Ardabil branch in the academic year of 2022-2023, and 48 people were selected by the available sampling method and randomly replaced in two experimental (n=23) and control (n=25) groups. The experimental group underwent eight 75-minute session-based therapy. Data collection tools included the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire (ACE-Q) (Bellis et al, 2014), The Barat impulsivity questionnaire(BIS-11) (Patton et al, 1995), The Gilbert self-blame scale (SBS) (Gilbert et al, 2004), and Self-conscious emotions scale of Shame and guilt (GASP) (Cohen et al, 2011). Data analysis was done by multivariate analysis of variance (MANCOVA). The findings showed that by controlling the pre-test effect, there was a significant difference at the 0.01 level between the post-test mean of self-blame, guilt, and impulsive behaviors in the two experimental and control groups. These results state that compassion-focused therapy is a suitable psychotherapy method to reduce self-blame, guilt, and impulsive behaviors of adolescents with adverse childhood experiences.