Development and Evaluation of an Emotional Intelligence Training Protocol and Comparison with Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy on Experiential Avoidance, Psychological Flexibility, and Psychosomatic Symptoms in Elementary School Teachers

Main Objectives: 1. To develop and validate an emotional intelligence training protocol based on the Bar-On model. 2. To compare the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training and intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy in experiential avoidance, psychological flexibility, and psychosomatic symptoms among elementary school teachers.

The clinical trial has two control groups, is single-blind, and randomized. Phase one will be conducted on 120 participants, and phase two on 72 participants. Randomization will be performed using a random number table and Excel software.

Setting: One of the schools designated by the General Directorate of Education of Semnan Province. Blinding: Single-blind method

1. Being employed in elementary school 2. Absence of gastrointestinal diseases of physical origin confirmed by a specialist physician, history of cardiac disease, no history of substance abuse, and not being pregnant.

1. Emotional Intelligence Training Intervention:Group-based training based on the Bar-On model; 10 weekly sessions, each 90 minutes, including instruction on the Bar-On emotional intelligence components, classroom exercises, and homework assignments; conducted by a trained psychologist. 2. Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) Intervention:Individual therapy; 10 sessions, each 90 minutes, based on standard ISTDP protocols; conducted by an experienced therapist. 3. Control group: No active intervention during the study period and receiving neutral content. 4. Target Population:Elementary school teachers who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Effectiveness of the interventions on experiential avoidance, psychological flexibility, and psychosomatic symptoms

Individuals are randomly assigned using a random number table to one of two study groups: the experimental group or the control group, and they receive the intervention corresponding to that group.

In this study, a (single-blind design) was used. This means that participants were unaware of their assignment to either the experimental or control group. To implement this approach, participants were only informed that they were taking part in a training program aimed at improving psychological skills. However, the specific details regarding the type of intervention and the differences between the groups were not disclosed to them. Thus, participants were not aware of the precise nature of the intervention and did not know whether they were in the experimental or control group. This measure was taken to reduce potential biases resulting from participants' awareness of their group allocation and to enhance the study's internal validity.

Given the nature of the study, after de-identifying the data, only the portion related to the primary outcome of the study will be shared.

Access will begin 9 months after the publication of the results.

Only researchers affiliated with academic institutions and researchers associated with the Ministry of Education.

No scientific misconduct and no data manipulation.

Hussein Lotfi: PhD student in Psychology, researcher, and developer of the Emotional Intelligence Training Protocol. Email: lotfi6th@gmail.com Dr. Seyed Mousa Tabatabaei: Primary supervisor. Email:s.mosatabatabaee@semnan.ac.ir Dr. Mojtaba Rajabpour: Co-supervisor. Email:mj_rajabpour@yahoo.com Dr. Hakimeh Aghaei: Advisory supervisor. Email: ha.aghae@gmail.com

Request submission via the researcher’s email (Hussein Lotfi), consultation between the researcher and the supervisors/advisor, decision-making by the researcher and supervisors, and sharing of data/documents if deemed appropriate by the supervisors. The duration of this process is between one to two weeks.