The Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Training on Uncertainty Tolerance and Psychological Distress of Women with Substance-Dependent Spouses

The current research aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotion regulation training on uncertainty tolerance and psychological distress of women with substance-dependent spouses.

The present study was semi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all women with substance-dependent spouses referring to public counseling centers in the city of Dezful in 2021. Among them, 30 women were selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental (n= 15) and control (n=15) groups. Participants of both groups completed the uncertainty tolerance questionnaire and the psychological distress inventory in the pre-test and post-test stages. Emotional regulation training was implemented on the experimental group in eight 90-minute sessions with the frequency of two sessions per week. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The findings showed that after controlling the pre-test effect, emotion regulation training significantly increased uncertainty tolerance and reduced psychological distress in the experimental group.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that women with substance-dependent spouses can achieve more uncertainty tolerance and experience less psychological distress by learning emotion regulation-based techniques. The result of this research can be used in educational and therapeutic areas related to substance dependence and its consequences.