The Effectiveness of Cognitive Emotion Regulation on Reduction of Depression and Anxiety symptoms of Adolescences

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive emotion regulation on depression and anxiety symptoms of female adolescences. The study employed a quasi experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group. The population consisted all female students of seventh, eighth and ninth grade at Four - area schools in academic year 2015-2016 in Shiraz The sample consisted of 160, 13-15 years old female adolecents in these schools were selected by convenience sampling method. Among these, students who obtained the score higher than one standard deviation from the mean in symptoms of depression and anxiety, (38 students) were selected. Finally, with regard to the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of the study, 30 students were chosen randomly and assigned in to two experimental and control groups. Research instruments were Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), respectively. Mixed analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. The results showed that cognitive emotion regulation training reduced emotional symptoms of depression but there were not a significant difference between control and experimental in other symptoms as well as an overall score of depression. In addition, cognitive emotion regulation decreasd all the symptoms of anxiety. The findings of this study support the effective role of cognitive emotion regulation program on symptoms of depression and anxiety, especially in adolescents. Based on these findings, the cognitive emotion regulation can be used as a new method of intervention in reducing symptoms of emotional disorders in adolescents.