Background: Anxiety disorders in children are among the most common challenges in the
field of mental health, with profound impacts on their emotional, social, and cognitive
development. These disorders are often accompanied by difficulties such as inappropriate
sensory processing, problems in emotion regulation, and deficits in selective attention,
which can disrupt a child’s daily functioning.
Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of music therapy on sensory
processing, emotion regulation, and selective attention in children with anxiety disorders.
Methodology: This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design
and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of children with anxiety
disorders in Bushehr city, and the sample included 40 participants (20 in the experimental
group and 20 in the control group), selected through convenience sampling. The
experimental group received music therapy in 10 sessions of 45 minutes each. Data
collection tools included the Children’s Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski,
2002), the Stroop Test (Zavaragh & Abdollahzadeh, 2014), the Spence Children’s Anxiety
Scale (Spence, 1997), and the School Form of the Sensory Profile Questionnaire (Dunn,
1997), which were administered before and after the intervention as well as at the twomonth
follow-up. The control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using
univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance and repeated-measures ANOVA in
SPSS.
Findings: The results demonstrated that music therapy significantly improved sensory
processing (0.001), emotion regulation(0.001), and selective attention(0.001) in the
experimental group. The components of acceptance, positive refocusing, and sensory
avoidance showed the most substantial improvements. In contrast, the control group
exhibited minimal changes. The effects remained stable during the follow-up period, with
the experimental group showing sustained impro