The effectiveness of compassion-based therapy in regulating emotion, self-criticism and anger in male students second secondary level

Considering the effect of regulating emotions, reducing self-criticism and anger in improving interpersonal and academic relationships of students, it is very important to identify the effectiveness of compassion-based therapy as one of the therapeutic methods.

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of compassion-based therapy on emotion regulation, self-criticism, and anger in male students of the second secondary level.

The research design was a semi-experimental type of pre-test, post-test with control group. The statistical population consisted of male students aged 15 to 18 years who visited the educational psychology clinics of the 2nd and 3rd regions of Tehran in the academic year of 2021-2022. The sample size is 30 people and the sampling method is simple random. They are in two experimental and control groups (15 people each). The tool for collecting emotion regulation questionnaires was Garnefsky and Craig (2006), self-criticism by Thompson & Zuroff (2004), aggression by Bass and Perry (1992). In the inferential statistics section, analysis of covariance test.

Compassion-based therapy has a significant effect (p<0.001) on emotion regulation, self-criticism, and anger among second-year high school male students. According to the eta square, this effectiveness estimated as 44.8, 66.3, 62.0 and 60.6% respectively.

Compassion-based therapy reduces maladaptive strategies and increases adaptive strategies in emotional regulation, reduces self-criticism, reduces anger, and improves the emotional and psychological conditions of adolescent students.