سوسن شریفی

The present research is conducted to determine the effectiveness of Unified protocols for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents (UP-A) on empathy and perceived social support, in bilingual middle school students. The statistical population of this study was comprised of bilingual students who studied of Tehran International School in the academic year of 2021-2022. A purposive method was used to select a sample of 30 students, and then they were randomly divided into two groups, experimental and control groups, each of 15 students. A semi-experimental research method with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test design was used for both experimental and control groups. The experimental group received family-centered psycho-education based on emotion regulation between the pre-test and post-test. Two questionnaires, the EmQue-CA and MSPSS were employed, to measure empathy and perceived social support, respectively. A mixed variance analysis with repeated measures was the technique for data analysis. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the scores of empathy and perceived social support of the students between the two groups in post-test and follow-up test compared to the pre-test (p < 0.05). Considering the vulnerability of adolescents to psychological harm due to difficulties regulating emotions, UP-A programs with an emphasis on emotion regulation can be particularly suitable for the effective prevention of a wide range of psychological disorders and seems effective in enhancing student empathy and perceived social support. Therefore, implementing UP-A in schools would be a wise preventive measure against emotional problems of adolescents