The effectiveness, acceptability, and sustainability of a 4‐week DBT‐informed group therapy in increasing psychological resilience for college students with mental health issues

Abstract

Objective An adapted, time‐limited dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training group therapy can prove to be an evidence‐based treatment that can easily fit the needs, demands, and limitations of University Counseling Centers to serve college students with mental disorders. The present naturalistic study investigated the effectiveness, acceptability, and sustainability of a 4‐week DBT‐informed group therapy in enhancing psychological resilience. Methods Participants included 59 college students with heterogeneous mental health concerns. They attended weekly 1.5‐hr DBT‐informed, resilience‐building group therapy for 4 weeks. Psychological resilience, mindfulness, emotional dysregulation, and overall distress were assessed at pretreatment and posttreatment, as well as at 1‐ and 3‐month follow‐ups. Results Findings showed increased psychological resilience among the participants at posttreatment and follow‐ups, and provided preliminary evidence for the role of mindfulness as an important contributor to enhancing psychological resilience even after controlling for risk factors, treatment dosage, pregroup psychological resilience, and changes in emotion dysregulation and overall distress. Conclusion A 4‐week DBT‐informed skills training group therapy can be utilized as a time‐efficient, cost‐effective, well‐accepted preventative treatment with the potential longitudinal impact to boost psychological resilience for college students with mental health issues.

Using a transdiagnostic approach to examine the associations among internalizing symptoms, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance

“…Of note, while there are no standardized clinical cutoffs for this measure, prior research suggests that the clinical range (i.e., emotion dysregulation; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) averages approximately 80-127 (Harrison et al, 2010;Staples & Mohlman, 2012). Internal consistency was good for our sample, similar to recent work with young adults (e.g., Lee & Arora, 2023), with a Cronbach's alpha of α = .89.…”

Innovative methods of applying psychological counseling to support mental health of college students

“…Students can share their emotional issues in a relatively anonymous environment without worrying about information leakage or social pressure. This privacy protection helps encourage students to actively seek support without being limited by worries and shame [3] .…”