Investigating the Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Symptoms, Anger Control and Emotional Regulation of Bully Children

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy in clinical symptoms, anger control and emotional regulation of bully children. This research is a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study design with a nonequivalent control group. The research sample comprises 24 bully children who were purposefully selected from among the students who had responded positively to the researcher's call. The participants were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Group therapy intervention was conducted on the experimental group during ten sessions. The tools applied in this study consisted of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Garnefski et al., State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory by Spielberger and Bullying Scale by Illinois, Espelage and Holt and the subjects answered to their questions in the stage of pretest and posttest. In this research, the data was analyzed based on the analysis of covariance test and with the aid of SPSS software. The findings demonstrated that dialectical behavior therapy has a significant impact on clinical symptoms, anger control and its components and emotional regulation and its components (P < 0.01).

The use of dialectical behavior therapy in adolescent anger management: A systematic review

“…We identified 11 studies examining the effectiveness of DBT in improving anger management among adolescents (see Table 1). An examination of the studies showed that these studies were carried out from 6 to 26 weeks, in correctional facilities (Shelton et al, 2011), schools (Burckhardt et al, 2018; Dadd, 2016; Ziraki & Hassan, 2017), community counseling centers (Castellanos, 2014; Denaro, 2007; Flynn et al, 2019; Geddes et al, 2013) or outpatient services of hospitals (Nelson-Gray et al, 2006; Marco et al, 2013; Woodberry & Popenoe, 2008), see Table 1.…”

“…An examination of the DBT interventions revealed that four studies used four elements of standard DBT (Flynn et al, 2019; Geddes et al, 2013; Marco et al, 2013; Woodbury & Popenoe, 2008 [skills training, individual therapy, therapist consultation, phone coaching]), one study used three elements of DBT (Dadd, 2016 [individual counseling, skills training, therapist consultation]), one study used two elements of DBT (Denaro, 2007 [skills training, individual counseling]), three studies only used DBT skills training (Burckhardt et al, 2018; Nelson-Gray et al, 2006; Ziraki & Hassan, 2017), while two studies failed to provide information regarding the DBT intervention (Castellanos, 2014; Shelton, Kesten, Zhang, & Trestman, 2011), see Table 2 for more information. Of the studies, Flynn and colleagues (2019) and Geddes and colleagues (2013) were the only studies allowing active parent participation in skills training sessions.…”

“…This trend was observed by other researchers (Sütçü Tekinsav, Aydın, & Sorias, 2010) studying anger in a different context. The studies in this review were generally carried out with groups with anger-related diagnoses such as oppositional defiant disorder (Marco et al, 2013), suicide attempt (Denaro, 2007; Shelton et al, 2011), self-harm (Castellanos, 2014; Geddes et al, 2013), and behavioral problems in school (Ziraki & Hassan, 2017). However, anger may not always turn into observable problems, or this may take time.…”

“…When the pretest and posttests of the experiment group were investigated, many studies included in this systematic review reported that DBT was effective in reducing anger and increasing anger management (Castellanos, 2014; Dadd, 2016; Marco et al, 2013; Woodberry & Popenoe, 2008; Ziraki & Hassan, 2017). However, two studies ( Burckhardt et al, 2018; Denaro, 2007) found that DBT was ineffective in this regard.…”