The effect of cognitive behavioral psychoeducation program to increase emotion regulation skills on various psychological variables

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)-based psychoeducation program on university students' intolerance of uncertainty, future anxiety levels, perfectionism and psychological resilience. In this study, an experimental design with pretest-posttest and follow-up test control group was used. The study group consisted of 24 Turkish university students enrolled in public institutions. Volunteers were randomly assigned to an experimental group of 12 and a control group of 12. An eight-session CBT-based psychoeducation program was applied online to the experimental group. The program included content focusing on emotion recognition, emotion regulation, cognitive distortions, ABC model, methods of coping with perfectionism, tolerance to ambiguity and psychological resilience. Participants in the control group were not subjected to any application in this process. Data were obtained from the "Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale", "Emotion Regulation Scale", "Future Anxiety Scale in University Students", "Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale" and "Psychological Resilience Scale". At the end of the program, unstructured evaluation questions were administered online to assess the perspectives of the experimental group members regarding the program. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and repeated measures ANOVA. While the control group did not show a statistically significant change, the results of the study showed a significant improvement in the posttest and follow-up test results of the experimental group. The results showed that the CBT-based psychoeducation program effectively reduced maladaptive perfectionism, future anxiety, and intolerance of uncertainty while increasing psychological resilience among university students. All of the hypotheses of the study were confirmed by the analyses. In the evaluations conducted at the end of the program, participants reported that the program provided them with new insights and perspectives, improved their ability to manage anxiety and perfectionism, and promoted an understanding of resilience. The findings suggest that CBT-based structured intervention programs can effectively help university students with cognitive functioning and emotion regulation.