The effectiveness of dialectical behavioral therapy on self-harmful and distress tolerance in adolescents with a history of self-harmful behaviors

Suicidal behaviors and self-harmful are one of the phenomena that has created a major challenge for mental health. Self-assessment in adolescents usually expresses high psychological distress. The prevalence of this problem indicates adolescents’ discontent, that has lots of effects on the other family members and friends. Self-assessment without suicide intention is actually self-employed or any kind of action that harms a person, but in this person, there is no intention to die, and ultimately, suicide behavior is without the intention of suicide, which causes suicide without having a person to finish his life. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of dialectical behavioral therapy on self-harmful behaviors and distress tolerance in adolescents to answer the questions of if the dialectical treatment affects the beatings and tolerance of distress.

The present study was a quasi-experiment with pretest post-test with control group and one-month follow-up period. The statistical population of this study was all adolescents referring to Bandar Abbas counseling clinics with a history of self-harmful behaviors. In this study, 30 patients were selected by voluntary and targeted non-targeted sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group) experimental group of dialectics treatment in 12 sessions of 2 hours received. The questionnaires used in this study included self-harmful behaviors questionnaire (Klonsky & Glenn, 2009) and distress tolerance questionnaire (Simmons and Gahr, 2005). Data from the research was analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA.

The results showed that Dialectical behavior therapy based on Dimeff and Linehan (2008) therapy package on the experimental group has been effective in beating and tolerating distress in adolescents, since this treatment has been successful in improving self-harmful behaviors and tolerance of distress. Also, the results showed that dialectical behavioral therapy remained fixed on self-harmful behaviors and distress tolerance in adolescents in follow-up stage

According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that dialectical behavioral therapy can be used as an effective therapeutic treatment for improving the behavior of self-esteem and tolerance in adolescents with a history of self-regulation by educating the skills of excitement, tolerance of distress, conscious mind are being used. Dialectical behavior training can be effective in reducing self-control behaviors. The results of this study with the findings of Chesli et al (2020), Abooutorabi Kashani et al (2020), Saffarinia et al (2015), zamani (2014), ghorbani (2018), Tabatabayi (2021), alavi (2012), Peymannia et al (2019) is a coherent research. Explaining the findings, it can be said that dialectical behavior therapy emphasizes learning resilience against pain in a skillful way, and it can be concluded that disturbed behaviors that are targeted in teaching dialectical behavior therapy skills to endure and survive in crises. And accepting life as it is in the present moment, and these strategies in the form of turning attention (when engaging in self-harming behavior), calming down (in time of distress), improving the moment, and thinking about the benefits and harms of self-injurious behavior.