The Effects of Emotion Regulation Treatment on Disruptive Behavior Problems in Children : A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Published in: Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
• Main Authors: Njardvik, Urdur, Smaradottir, Hronn, Öst, Lars Göran
• Other Authors: Faculty of Psychology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Children; Cognitive behavioral treatment; Disruptive behavior problems; Externalizing disorders; Randomized controlled trial; Problem Behavior/psychology; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders/therapy; Emotional Regulation; Parents/psychology; Humans; Child; Psychiatry and Mental Health; Developmental and Educational Psychology; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/3973; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00903-7

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Arnor Bjornsson Memorial Fund and the University of Iceland Research Fund. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). Disruptive behavior problems are a frequent reason for children’s referrals to psychological services and can have negative effects on social and academic functioning. Most treatment programs involve parents as recipients and implementation of intervention programs in school is low. Deficits in emotion regulation have recently been implicated in the development of disruptive behavior disorders, making child directed early intervention programs focusing on increasing emotion regulation skills feasible. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of Tuning Your Temper, a brief cognitive behavioral program for children with disruptive behavior problems, in a randomized controlled trial. A total of 125 children with disruptive behavior problems at school, aged 6–11 years old were randomized to either intervention or wait-list control condition. Treatment was conducted at school. Assessments included teacher and parent ratings on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale (DBRS) pre- and post-treatment and at 6-month follow-up. Results showed a significant reduction in behavior problems for the treatment condition on both measures and effects were maintained at 6-month follow-up. Results were more robust for teacher ratings, with medium to large effect sizes. Tuning Your Temper appears to be a promising early intervention program for children with disruptive behavior problems at school. Peer reviewed