Journal of Counseling Research

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Aim: The present study aimed to compare cognitive flexibility, psychological capital and coping strategies with pain between individuals with COVID-19 responding and non-responding to home treatment. Methods: Methodology for this study was ex-post facto. Population included individuals with COVID-19 who responded or did not respond to home treatment in city of Tehran. Using snowball sampling, 87 individuals responding to home treatment and 92 individuals who did not responde to home treatment were selected and completed the questionnaires of Dennis and VanderWal (2010), flexibility, Luthans et al’s cognitive psychological capital (2007), and Rosenstiel and Keefe’s coping strategies with pain (1985). Data were analyzed using MANOVA. Results: There was significant difference between cognitive flexibility, psychological capital, and coping strategies with pain between the groups of responding and non-responding to home treatment (P<0.01). Catastrophazing-type of coping strategy was less in group of responding to home treatment than group of non-responding to home treatment, but cognitive flexibility, self-efficacy, hopefulness, resiliency, optimistic, and coping strategies of diverting attention, reinterpretation of pain, ignoring pain, self-talk, pray-hopefulness, and increase of behavior in group of responding to home treatment were higher than the non-responding group. Conclusion: Cognitive flexibility, psychological capital, and coping strategies with pain effect responding to home treatment of COVID-19. The results provide evidence that applying the interventions of prevention and treatment based on positive psychology as improving cognitive flexibility, psychological capital and efficient coping strategies can effect the procedure of home treatment and increase responding to COVID-19 treatment.

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Objective: Blended families, due to their unique structure and complex relational dynamics, can create emotional and cognitive challenges for adolescents. Self-help educational programs, by strengthening emotion regulation and cognitive flexibility skills, may enhance adolescents’ adaptation to new family conditions. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a self-help educational package on emotion regulation and cognitive flexibility in adolescents from blended families.
Method: Method: This research employed a quasi-experimental design with pretest–posttest and a control group. The statistical population included 120 female high school students from blended families in Yazd during the 2023–2024 academic year. Based on inclusion criteria (being a female adolescent from a blended family in Yazd, at least six months having passed since the formation of the new family, studying in high school, and voluntary participation with parental consent), 40 participants were selected using purposive sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 20) and control (n = 20) groups. Data were collected using the Gratz and Roemer Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2004) and the Dennis and Vander Wal Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (2010). The self-help educational program was conducted for the experimental group in ten 60-minute sessions. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).
Results: Findings: The results showed that the self-help educational intervention significantly improved emotion regulation (F = 60.30, p < .05) and cognitive flexibility (F = 55.05, p < .05) in the experimental group, while no significant changes were observed in the control group. The findings also indicated that self-help education can effectively enhance adolescents’ self-management skills and cognitive–emotional adjustment in blended families.
Conclusion: Conclusion: The findings suggest that self-help educational interventions can serve as an effective tool for promoting psychological well-being and cognitive–emotional adaptability among adolescents in blended families.