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Ghezelseflo M, nejatifar S, aghaziarati A. (2022). The efficacy of unified transdiagnostic treatment on distress tolerance and emotion regulation of students with internalized behavioral problems. Journal of Psychological Science. 21(111), 525-542. doi:10.52547/JPS.21.111.525
URL: http://psychologicalscience.ir/article-1-1448-en.html

Background: Research shows that students with internalizing behavioral problems suffer from actions such as distress intolerance and inability to regulate emotion. Previous research has also shown that unified transdiagnostic treatment affects different variables. Therefore, according to the research background, there was a research gap in the effectiveness of unified transdiagnostic treatment in distress tolerance and emotion regulation of students with internalizing behavioral problems.
Aims: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of unified transdiagnostic treatment on distress tolerance and emotion regulation of students with internalizing behavioral problems.
Methods: The present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, and a control group. The statistical population of this study included first-grade high school female students with internalizing behavioral disorders in Tehran schools in 2019-2020. Thirty students with internalizing behavioral problems were selected by purposive non-random sampling and assigned into experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. The experimental group received unified transdiagnostic treatment (Barlow et al., 2017) in ten 90-minute sessions over three months. The data were collected by the Youth Self- Report (Achenbach & Rescorla (2003), Distress Tolerance Scale (Simmons & Gaher, 2005), and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefsky, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2001), and were analyzed by the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).
Results: The results showed that unified transdiagnostic treatment increased distress tolerance and improved students’ emotion regulation (p= 0.01). Also, the results of MANCOVA showed that the effect of unified transdiagnostic treatment on distress tolerance (F= 106.23), self-blame (F= 17.84), other-blame (F= 37.22), rumination (F= 36.12), catastrophizing (F= 38.67), acceptance (F= 18.86), refocusing on planning (F= 21.06), positive refocusing (F= 35.26), positive reappraisal (F= 29.69), and putting into perspective (F= 33.59) was significant (p= 0.01).
Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, it can be stated that unified transdiagnostic treatment using emotional awareness training, learning to observe emotional experiences, re-identifying emotions, identifying patterns of emotion avoidance, and cognitive reappraisal increased distress tolerance and improved emotion regulation in students with internalizing behavioral problems.