The effect of behavioral activator therapy with guided mental imagery on temptation, perceived stress and emotional-negative cognitive regulation adolescents addicted to drugs

Behavioral activation therapy is one of the effective treatment methods for people who have some kind of mental deterioration. The effect of behavioral activation therapy with guided mental imagery on the level of temptation, perceived stress, and positive-negative emotional cognitive regulation of substance-dependent adolescents has not been investigated in the history of this field.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of behavioral activator therapy with guided mental imagery on resilience, temptation, perceived stress and positive and negative cognitive emotional regulation of substance-dependent adolescents.

The research method was quasi-experimental (pre-test-post-test design with equal control group). The sample consisted of 30 drug-dependent adolescents who were selected by convenience sampling. Then, from the research sample, 15 substance-dependent adolescents were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 15 substance-dependent adolescents to the control group. Research instruments included Temptation Questionnaire (Salehi Fadardi et al., 2011), Stress Questionnaire (Cohen et al., 2012) and Adjustment Questionnaire and Emotional Questionnaire (Garnfsky et al., 2002). Multivariate analysis of Mancova and Ankova multivariate analysis of covariance was used for data analysis.

The results of data analysis showed that behavioral activation therapy with guided mental imagery increases resilience and positive cognitive emotional regulation and reduces temptation, perceived stress and negative emotional cognitive regulation in adolescents addicted to experimental group compared to control group.

Considering the effect of behavioral activator treatment with guided mental imagery on positive cognitive emotional regulation and reducing the amount of temptation, perceived stress, and negative cognitive emotional regulation of adolescents, this treatment method should be considered and used in addiction treatment centers.