School‐based interventions to improve emotional regulation skills in adolescent students: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction Emotional regulation (ER) is a core variable involved in the onset and maintenance of mental health disorders; therefore, interventions targeting ER in adolescence represent a promising preventive action. The current systematic review provides a synthesis of the evidence on school‐based interventions on ER in adolescent students. Methods Six electronic databases (Medline, Psychology Database, Embase, Scopus, Psychinfo, and Web of Science) were searched. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed by the Methodological Index for Nonrandomized Studies. Results A total of 36 studies were identified. The interventions were based on different theoretic frameworks and focused on different components of ER. There were universal interventions that addressed the entire class, as well as interventions for a selected population of at‐risk students. Only one‐third of the studies were based on manualized programs. Small to moderate effect sizes were found for mental health and ER skills. Only a few studies assessed risky behaviors, and these studies showed a reduction with moderate to large effect size. Studies conducted on high‐risk populations showed medium‐high effect sizes on ER skills. In contrast, studies conducted on unselected samples of students showed greater variability in the outcome estimates. Acceptability analysis and attendance rates suggested that the interventions were well received by students. The lack of follow‐up assessments and the absence of sample‐size calculation were the most frequent methodological weaknesses. Conclusions The content of the present review could be useful for professionals involved in the planning of school psychological services. Overall, the findings of the current review support the applicability and beneficial effect of school‐based intervention for adolescents. Moreover, the results clearly point out the utility of a multitiered model to structure coordinated and integrated preventive interventions and to optimize resources.

Psychological interventions for depression in children and adolescents: A bibliometric analysis

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Substance Use Motives as Mediators of the Associations between Self-Control Constructs and Negative Substance Use Consequences: A Cross-Cultural Examination

“…Similar approaches have been applied to personality-targeted interventions of individuals predisposed to use a substance for a specific motive (e.g., sensation seeking and enhancement motives, Conrod et al, 2008). Studies by Cameron et al (2018) and Pedrini et al (2022) indicated that vulnerable populations (e.g., individuals with a tendency to act rashly when experiencing intense emotions) may benefit from interventions aimed at improving impulse control particularly when it is activated by intense emotional states. The evidence so far has been promising regarding the effectiveness of interventions (e.g., those targeting emotion expression or that promote mindfulness) aimed at improving emotion regulation ability (Davis et al, 2019;Moore et al, 2022).…”

Psycho-Social Correlates of Cyberbullying among Polish Adolescents

“…The results presented also have practical significance, suggesting the areas in which psychologists, educators, teachers, and parents may become more aware and actively involved in the prevention of cyberbullying. Because our research indicates that (1) being a victim of cyberbullying is the most important predictor of being a perpetrator (cyberbullying may therefore be a maladaptive response to problematic situations) and (2) being a perpetrator is associated with the variables relating to emotional regulation in the broadest sense (such as emotional self-control, assertiveness, resentment toward peers, or impulsive responses to Internet use restriction), effective interventions aimed at reducing the intensity of cyber-perpetration should therefore focus on the development of more adaptive styles of anger expression [ 179 , 180 ]. In this context, a review of the available meta-analyses by Lee and DiGiuseppe [ 181 ] indicates that “cognitive-behavioral and other approaches to treatment of anger are comparable and at least moderately effective, with limited evidence favoring relaxation treatments over other types” [ 181 ].…”