The effect of emotion regulation program on early adolescents' emotion regulation strategies

The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of Emotion Regulation Program on adolescents' ER strategies and their mood. A three groups (experiment, plasebo, control) and three measurements (pre-test, post-test and follow up) quasi-experimental design (3x3) was used. Among 35 participants 7 females 5 males were assigned to experimental group, 7 females 5 males to plasebo group and 7 females 4 males to control group. Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Adolescents and Positive-Negative Affect Schedule were used as measures of the study. The data was analyzed by non-parametric statistics. In-group comparisons showed that the intervention program is significantly effective in experimental group through increasing adaptive internal and external ER strategies and decreasing maladaptive internal ER strategies. However, according to the between groups comparison results, the ER program did not contribute to a significant change in adolescents' ER strategies. It is also found that the intervention program did not significantly change positive and negative affect of participants.