An Emotion Regulation Intervention to Reduce Risk Behaviors Among at-Risk Early Adolescents

Houck, Christopher D.; Hadley, Wendy; Barker, David H.; Brown, Larry K.; Hancock, Evan; Almy, Brandon

doi:10.1007/s11121-015-0597-0

Cited by 66 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…Another possibility that could explain the null finding is the length of the workshop. Research on behavioral interventions supports the need for longer treatment intervals to achieve changes in ER [Houck et al, ; Kuroda et al, ; Wyman et al, ]. Although the workshop intervention was exclusively for the parents, parents in the workshop group reported changes in the behavior of their children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A non randomized mentalization intervention for parents of children with autism

et al. 2019

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Parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report higher levels of stress and other negative affective states than parents of typically developing children. One important resource in managing these heightened levels of negative affect is emotion regulation, which in turn depends upon the ability to recognize and understand one's own and others' mental states (referred to as mentalization or reflective functioning). In this study, parents of children with ASD either participated in a mentalization‐based group intervention (N = 36) or a delayed treatment (N = 28). Compared to delayed treatment participants, parents in the mentalization‐based group had increases in reflective functioning and in the belief that emotions can change. Moreover, they reported decreased behavioral and emotional symptoms in their children, and greater parental self‐efficacy. These preliminary findings support previous studies, which have shown that mentalization‐based interventions for parents lead to positive outcomes, and suggest that these findings may apply to a diverse population of parents such as those of children with broader autism phenotype or children with different neurological disorders. Further studies to evaluate the effects of the intervention are recommended. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1077–1086. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary In this study, parents of children with ASD participated in a group intervention designed to increase their awareness of mental states (their own and their children's) and to enhance their emotion regulation. Compared to delayed treatment parents, those in the intervention group showed increased awareness of developmental states, and reported increased belief that emotions can change and decreased levels of behavioral and emotional symptoms in their children.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A non randomized mentalization intervention for parents of children with autism

et al. 2019

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“…Forty percent of referred students enrolled in the study. Additional details regarding Project TRAC procedures, recruitment, and retention have been previously published (Houck et al, 2016). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data from the immediate posttest were used only for providing information for time to sexual initiation; short-term effects of the intervention have been published elsewhere (Houck et al, 2016). Adolescents completed an audio-assisted computer self-interview (ACASI).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adolescents completed the 8-item Emotion Regulation Behaviors Scale (ERBS; Houck et al, 2016), created for the study to assess use of the specific emotion regulation strategies taught in the ER intervention. Using a scale of 1 (“never”) to 5 (“all of the time”), teens responded to items such as “In the last week, when you were having a strong feeling (for example, really mad, really sad, or really excited) how often did you …get away from whatever was causing your feeling?…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an evaluation of the short-term outcomes immediately following the intervention, participants in the Emotion Regulation (ER) condition reported fewer health risk behaviors during the approximately two-month intervention period relative to those in a general Health Promotion (HP) condition (Houck et al, 2016). Adolescents in the HP condition were 2.5 times more likely to be sexually active than those who were taught emotion regulation strategies.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The 1-year impact of an emotion regulation intervention on early adolescent health risk behaviors.

Houck¹,

Barker²,

Hadley³

et al. 2016

Health Psychology

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Objective Sexual activity often begins in early adolescence, and adolescents with mental health symptoms are at greater risk for sexual activity and other health risks. This study aimed to evaluate a developmentally targeted intervention designed to enhance early adolescents’ emotion regulation competencies as a strategy for reducing health risk behaviors, including sexual initiation. Method Adolescents 12 to 14 years old (N = 420; 53% male) with mental health symptoms participated in either an Emotion Regulation (ER) or Health Promotion (HP) intervention consisting of twelve after-school sessions. Participants completed questionnaires on laptop computers at baseline, 2-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Results Time to event analyses were used to compare intervention conditions on rate of initiation to vaginal sex. Results showed that participants in the Emotion Regulation (ER) condition were less likely to transition into vaginal sexual activity by one-year follow-up than those in the Health Promotion (HP) condition (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.36 to 0.94, p = .01). However, those who were sexually active did not report differences in sexual risk behaviors (e.g., condomless sex). Participants in the ER condition were significantly less likely to report violence behaviors and showed improvement on a behavioral measure of emotion identification, however they did not differ from HP participants on self-reports of emotional competence. Conclusions Emotion regulation strategies can be used to delay sexual initiation among early adolescents with mental health symptoms and may have an important role in health education.

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Virtual reality for the enhancement of emotion regulation

Colombo

Díaz-García

Fernández‐Álvarez

et al. 2021

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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In recent decades, a growing body of literature has focused on emotion regulation (ER), which refers to the ability to implement strategies in order to modulate emotional responses and reach desirable goals. To date, impaired ER (i.e., emotion dysregulation) has been identified as a transdiagnostic factor across a wide range of psychopathological conditions, which shows the importance of improving patients' ability to regulate negative and positive emotions in clinical practice. In addition to the increasing evidence showing its efficacy in the treatment of several clinical conditions, virtual reality (VR) has recently emerged as a potentially powerful tool for enhancing ER, thus breaking new ground in the development of cutting-edge transdiagnostic interventions. In the present narrative review, we will provide an overview of the existing evidence about VR-based interventions in the field of ER, emphasizing the promising findings and the barriers that still have to be addressed. To this aim, the available VR-based literature will be analysed in relation to four categories of ER strategies: situational strategies, attentional strategies, cognitive strategies, and response modulation strategies. Furthermore, new emerging fields of research targeting innovative aspects of ER will be highlighted, including the use of VR to promote positive emotions and interpersonal ER skills. Besides, its cost-effectiveness will be discussed, taking into account the costs for both developers (e.g., clinicians and researchers) and end-users. Finally, future directions in this promising field of research will be outlined.

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An Emotion Regulation Intervention to Reduce Risk Behaviors Among at-Risk Early Adolescents

Cited by 66 publications

References 47 publications

A non randomized mentalization intervention for parents of children with autism

A non randomized mentalization intervention for parents of children with autism

The 1-year impact of an emotion regulation intervention on early adolescent health risk behaviors.

Virtual reality for the enhancement of emotion regulation

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