Comparison of the Effectiveness of Dialectical-Behavioral and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Irrational Beliefs, Emotion Regulation, and Impulsive Behaviors of High School Female Students

Irrational beliefs, emotion regulation, and impulsive behaviors are variables that affect students' mental health. In this context, dialectical-behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy are effective approaches to reducing adolescent behavioral disorders. Thus, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of dialectical-behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy on irrational beliefs, emotion regulation, and impulsive behaviors of high school female students.

The statistical population of this quasi-experimental study included all high school female students in Ramsar city in the academic year of 2015-2016. Forty-five subjects were selected through random cluster sampling from female high schools and were randomly grouped into control and interventions (15 persons in each group). The groups completed emotion regulation, irrational beliefs, and impulsiveness questionnaires in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. The experimental groups received 8-sessions of 90-minutes dialectical-behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed using Bonferroni post-hoc test and repeated measures analysis of variance.

Compared to pre-test, post-test scores of impulsive behaviors (Md=4.33, p<0.001) and irrational beliefs (Md=3.66, p<0.001) in the cognitive-behavioral therapy group and post-test scores of impulsive behaviors (Md=8.40, p<0.001) and irrational beliefs (Md=13.93, p=0.001) in dialectical-behavioral therapy group significantly reduced. Also, post-test of emotion regulation of cognitive-behavioral therapy group (Md=-0.20, p<0.001) and dialectical-behavioral therapy (Md=-7.46, p<0.001) significantly increased compared to pre-test; these effects continued in the follow-up phase.

Dialectical-behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies can be used as effective treatments to improve emotion regulation and reduce irrational beliefs and impulsive behaviors in female students; there is no difference between them in this respect.