Investigation of the effect of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on alexithymia, anxiety and interpersonal problems in young adults

In this study, it was aimed to examine the effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy Group Skills Training (DBT-GST) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Group Skills Training (CBT-GST) intervention on mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, stress tolerance, alexithymia, anxiety and interpersonal problems in young adult women with alexithymia. The research consist of two steps. In the first step, 428 individuals aged between 18-25 years participated in the study. As a result of the regression analysis on the prediction of alexithymia scores of female and male participants, it was found that the alexithymia scores of women were significantly predicted. Therefore, 41 female participants were included in the second part of the study. The scales used in the study were Sociodemographic Information Form, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Beck Anxiety Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Brief Form (DERS-16), Interpersonal Problems Inventory, Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form (FFMQ-S), Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales Short Form, and Distress Tolerance Scale. By random assignment method, 14 participants were assigned to DBT-GST, 14 participants to CBT-GST and 13 participants to the waiting list group. The participants in the experimental groups provided with a treatment for 12 weeks, with each session lasting 90 minutes. The control group did not receive any intervention during this period. Pre-, mid- and post-measurements were taken from the participants. In the analysis of the data, Correlation Analysis, Chi-Square, Independent Sample t Test, Mixed Pairwise Analysis of Variance, Regression Analysis were performed using SPSS 26. As a result of the analyses, there were significant changes in alexithymia, interpersonal problems, mindfulness and difficulties in emotion regulation scores in both DBT-GST and CBT-GST groups. When the effect sizes were analyzed, it was found that the DBT-GST group had a greater effect than the CBT-GST group. Interpersonal competence and stress tolerance scores of DBT-GST, CBT-GST, and the waiting list did not show significant within- and between-group changes. A significant change was found in anxiety score only in DBT-GST. No difference was found at any measurement level in any of the variables in the participants on the waiting list. It is possible to say that DBT-GST and CBT-GST are effective methods for young adult women with alexithymia, and DBT-GST is a more effective school considering the effect sizes of CBT-GST.