The Effectiveness of Group Training of Emotional Regulation on Adolescent’s Self-injury, Depression, and Anger

The prevalence of self-injury behavior and negative emotions in adolescents is high. This study aimed to investigate the effect of emotional regulation group training on self-injury behavior, depression, and anger in adolescents.

The research method is quasi-experimental with a Pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The study population comprised adolescents aged 13-15 years living in Shiraz City, Iran, in 2020 with self-injury experience. A total of 30 samples were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling method and randomly assigned to the two groups of experimental and control (each 15 members). A Pre-test evaluated members of both groups. Then emotion regulation group training was applied online to the experimental group. After that, the participants in both groups were assessed in the post-test. Data collection tools were deliberate self-harm inventory, Kutcher adolescent depression scale, and state and trait anger expression inventory. Descriptive Statistics (SD) and inferential statistics (multivariate covariance) were used to analyze the obtained data

The results of the multivariate covariance test showed that group training of emotion regulation affected self-injury behavior, depression, and anger (P<0.05). Data analysis showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups regarding self-injury, depression, and anger. Emotion-regulation group training reduced self-injury behavior and the rate of depression and anger in adolescents.

Emotion-regulation group training is one of the new therapies to reduce problems. This study also confirms its effectiveness on emotions and dysfunctional behaviors of adolescents.