The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Training on Emotion Regulation and High-Risk Behaviors in High School Students

Abstract: One of the structures associated with high-risk behaviors in high school students is the ability to regulate emotion. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral training on emotion regulation and high-risk behaviors in high school male students. The present study was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population included all high school male students in the second district of Tehran, Iran in 2021. From this population, 30 people were selected by accessible sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). To collect data, Zadehmohammadi et al. (2011) High-risk Behaviors Questionnaire and Gross and John Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2003) were used. The experimental group received eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral training extracted from the cognitive-behavioral treatment of Kamphuis and Jacquin (1995). The control group did not receive any intervention during this period. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test the research hypotheses. The results exhibited that cognitive-behavioral education improved emotion regulation and reduced high-risk behaviors in high school students. Findings generally support the role of interventions focused on students' cognitive beliefs in increasing the ability to regulate emotion and reduce risky behaviors.