The Effect of Training Emotion Regulation Skills on the Resiliency of Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Background & Aims: Anxiety is an emotion-based disorder resulting from resiliency and it is expected that the ability of individuals to regulate their emotions can be a key factor in determining the amount of their resiliency. The present study aimed to examine the effects of training emotion regulation skills on the resiliency of patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Methods: Using multi-stage clustered random sampling method in this quasi-experimental study, participants were selected from three high schools and two first-grade classes in each high school, respectively. Following the completion of the Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) and clinical interviews, 30 individuals were selected and placed randomly in two groups of experimental and control. The experimental group exposed to 13-sessions Gratz and Gunderson’s emotion regulation skills training, but the control group received no training. Both the groups were responded to the items of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale before and after the intervention. The differences of the scores were calculated between pre- and postintervention data and were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Results: Training emotion regulation skills was effective on the resiliency of patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Conclusion: It seems that training the emotion regulation skills can be implemented in clinical interventions to promote resiliency among the patients with generalized anxiety disorder.