Volume 28, Issue 5
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2019.1158
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY SKILLS TO REDUCTION IN DIFFICULTY IN EMOTION REGULATION AMONG STUDENTS
Abstract
Emotion dysregulation is one of the most important symptoms in many psychiatric disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) and related pathology. Accordingly, there are four components of intervention in the treatment of group therapy: mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, emotional regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness. The goal of this study was to survey the effectiveness of training the dialectical behavior therapy skills to see if it causes the reduction in difficulty emotion regulation among university students. This research was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, and control group. Participants were selected among students who had difficulty in controlling their emotion. Twenty-one students who had entry criteria in this study were randomly divided into two experimental (DBT skill group) and waiting list groups. All of participants filled out Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) before interventions and immediately after the end of therapeutic session. The result indicated that training dialectical behavior therapy skills would lead to decrease difficulty in emotion regulation; moreover, a reduction was observed in some subscales including non-acceptance of emotional responses, impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness, limited access to emotion regulation strategies and emotional clarity. The current study showed that emotional regulation training in a non-clinical sample can be effective in reducing negative emotions and increasing the acceptance and awareness so Dialectical behavioral therapy by increasing the ability to control and regulate emotions can increase positive mood and increase control feelings.
Keywords
Emotion regulation, Dialectic behavior therapy, Emotion dysregulation, Behavior therapy skills.