The Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Training on Aggression and Coping Styles of Methamphetamine Substance Abusers

In recent years, drug addiction has become a widespread phenomenon among different social groups with other characteristics. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotional regulation training on aggression and coping styles of methamphetamine addicts.

The present study population is all methamphetamine addicts in Varamin city. The research sample of 30 people with methamphetamine addicts was selected from the addiction treatment clinic by available sampling and randomly allocated into two experimental and control groups. The emotion regulation protocol was trained in the experimental group during the 12 sessions, but the control group did not receive any training. To measure the variables, Bass and Perry Aggression Questionnaire (1992) and Andler and Parker’s (1990) Coping Style Questionnaire were used in pre-test and post-test.

At the end of the sessions, data were analyzed using a covariance test. The results showed that emotional regulation training effectively decreases aggression, improves task-oriented and emotion-oriented coping styles, and reduces the avoidant coping style in methamphetamine addicts.

Due to the proliferation of social damage, such as methamphetamine addiction, experts in this field need to master new and effective ways of regulating emotions to help these patients prevent relapse to using the drug.