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theses

This pilot study examined the feasibility of an abbreviated DBT skills program for emotionally dysregulated undergraduates and also aimed to assess whether there was an additive benefit of mindfulness in group skills training by comparing two brief DBT skills groups: emotion regulation skills training (ER) only and emotion regulation with core mindfulness skills (M+ER). Participants were undergraduate students aged 18 years or older at a large state university. Participants were assigned to either the M+ER or ER condition; both groups completed two-hour weekly sessions over the course of eight weeks and completed outcome measures at baseline, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and 4-week follow-up. Primary outcomes were emotion dysregulation, depression, anxiety, and stress, positive and negative affect, mindfulness, DBT skills use, and work and social functioning. Results suggest that abbreviated DBT skills training may be an effective intervention for problems of emotion regulation, as participants made significant gains across outcome measures with primarily large effect sizes at post-treatment and 4-week follow-up. However, no additive benefit of mindfulness skills training was found, as there were no significant differences in outcomes between groups. In addition, positive feedback and low attrition support the acceptability of abbreviated DBT skills training in a college setting but impediments to feasibility included difficulty recruiting participants, in part due to the scheduling constraints of the college lifestyle. Implications of the findings and future directions are discussed.

ETD_4560

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Lauren M. Steffel

doi:10.7282/T3CR5RTV

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.