Background and Aims: The incidence of cancer in children is a stressful event that, in addition to causing various health problems for the family, may also have different physical and psychological consequences for the child. Therefore, this research was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of the philosophy and emotional self-regulation training program on depression and academic self-regulation of students with cancer.
Method: The research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group with a two-month follow-up. All the children with cancer covered by Mahak Charitable Institution of Tehran in 2024 formed the statistical population of the study, which were selected by targeted sampling of 45 people and randomly assigned in three equal groups of 15 people. Data collection was done with Beck Depression questionnaire and Bouffard Academic Self-Regulation questionnaire. The control group did not receive training. Data were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test.
Findings: Philosophy education and emotional self-regulation education reduced depression (F=7.483 & η=0.263), and increased academic self-regulation (F=11.833 & η=0.360) in students with cancer compared to the control group (P<0.05). Also, Benferroni's post hoc test showed that the educational programs had no significant difference in terms of usefulness on pain perception (P>0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results, philosophy education and emotional self-regulation are effective interventions for improving depression and academic self-regulation in cancer students. In clinical settings, combining these programs with drug therapy can be useful to achieve promising results.