The effectiveness of self-help of mindfulness-based emotional balance on emotion dysregulation and self-compassion

Growing evidence demonstrate that mindfulness-based self-help interventions have benefits for physical and psychological health in different populations. Mindfulness-based emotional balance is a new program whose efficacy in form of self-help has not been studied so far. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of the program on the emotion dysregulation and self-compassion in a student sample.

this study was a double-blind randomized control trial. Totally 80 students were randomly divided into two groups (40 people in each group) of self-help of mindfulness-based emotional balance and waiting list control. The Mindful Attentional Awareness Scale (MAAS), the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) were done before the intervention, after ten weeks, and at two months follow up.

Analysis of covariance showed a significant effect of self-help program on emotion dysregulation and self-compassion in the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up (P<0.05), whereas waiting list control group showed no significant change in any of the scales. There was also a significant increase in  mindfulness in the post-test stage (p<0.05). All changes were permanent in two months follow-up.

In summary, the mindfulness-based emotional balance can be an effective, inexpensive, and acceptable self-help program to reduce the emotion dysregulation and self-compassion.