The Effect Emotional Regulation Training on Adaptive Social Behaviors of Adolescent with Separation Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotion regulation training on adaptive/social behaviors of adolescents with separation anxiety disorder. The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with a control group. Participants in the study were 20 adolescents with separation anxiety who were identified among the adolescents studying in the first and second grades of Tehran School of Art and Literature in the academic year 2019-2020 and were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups of 10 adolescents. The experimental group received the Gross model emotion regulation training in 8 sessions of 90 minutes individually, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were collected using March et al.'s (1997) Separation Anxiety Inventory and Spence et al.'s (2002) Adaptive / Social Performance Questionnaire, in pretest and post-test. Research data were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance. The results of the analysis of covariance showed that emotion regulation training was effective in increasing adaptive/social behaviors in adolescents with a separation anxiety disorder (ρ <0.001). According to the findings, it seems that emotion regulation training can be used to manage anxiety and increase adaptive behaviors in adolescents with separation anxiety disorder as a complementary education program along with other treatment methods.

Keywords

• adaptive social behaviors
• emotion regulation
• separation anxiety disorder