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

Background: 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. Methods: 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 Results: 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. Conclusion: 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.