The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Training on Emotion Regulation and High-Risk Behaviors in High School Students

One of the structures associated with high-risk behaviors in high school students is the ability to regulate emotion. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral training on emotion regulation and high-risk behaviors in high school male students. The study design is a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population included all high school male students in District-2 of Tehran (Iran) in 2021. From this population, 30 people were selected by the accessible sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The needed data were gathered using the High-risk Behaviors Questionnaire by Zadehmohammadi et al. (2011) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Gross and John (2003). The experimental group received eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral training extracted from the cognitive-behavioral treatment of Kamphuis and Jacquin (1995). The control group did not receive any intervention during this period. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test the research hypotheses. The results exhibited that cognitive-behavioral education improved emotion regulation and reduced high-risk behaviors in high school students. Findings generally support the role of interventions focused on students’ cognitive beliefs in increasing the ability to regulate emotion and reduce risky behaviors.