Aims: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies training on difficulties in emotion regulation.
Methods: This research was an experimental study. To this end, 20 university students (9 males and 11 females) from the Kharazmi University voluntarily participated in this study. The volunteers were trained emotion regulation strategies for 10 sessions in a group. In all the three stages of training (prior to training, while receiving the training and subsequent to the training) individuals were tested using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). The obtained data were entered into SPSS 18 and were analyzed using Repeated Measures ANOVA and Bonferroni tests.
Results: Results indicated that, process emotion regulation training meaningfully decreases the scores of difficulties engaging in goal directed behavior (P<0.001), lack of emotional awareness (P<0.001), impulse control difficulties (P<0.01), limited access to emotion regulation strategies (P<0.01), lack of emotional clarity (P<0.01) and non-acceptance of emotional responses (P<0.05) in the participants.
Conclusion: With regards to the results of the present research, it can be concluded that modifying maladaptive emotion regulation strategies can be a good solution to prevent emotion problems.