Comparison of the Effectiveness of Imago Therapy Package for Affective Breakdown and Trauma Specific Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Anxiety and Negative Affects among Adolescent Girl

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Adolescent girls faced with affective breakdown have an urgent need to overcome their problems. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of imago therapy package for affective breakdown and cognitive-behavioral therapy on anxiety and negative affects among adolescent girl.
 
Materials and Methods: This research was a semi-experimental study with a pretest, posttest and follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population was adolescent girl who faced affective breakdown in the winter of 2022 in Isfahan, Iran. From them, 48 preschool adolescent girl were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned in two experimental groups and a control group (16 adolescent girl for each group). Spitzer’s et al anxiety questionnaire (2006) and Watson & Clark’s negative affect scale (1992) was used to assess dependent variables in three stages. Two treatment groups were treated in 10 sessions of 90 minutes each, and the control group did not receive any treatment. The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance and post-hoc Bonferroni test  by SPSS version 26
 
Findings: The results showed that there was a significant difference between imago therapy package for affective breakdown and cognitive-behavioral therapy in anxiety and negative affect with the control group (p<0.01), but there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of two treatment groups (p>0.05).
 
Conclusions: Considering the effectiveness of imago therapy for affective breakdown and cognitive-behavioral therapy on reducing anxiety and negative affect, it is suggested that these two treatments be used for girls who face affective breakdown in psychological treatment centers for adolescents.