Emotion-Focused Group Therapy and Its Impact on Emotional Reactivity and Interpersonal Problems in Male Adolescent Students: A Quasi-Experimental Pretest-Posttest Control Group Trial
International Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences,
Vol. 13 No. 2 (2026),
18 August 2026
,
Page 11-21
https://doi.org/10.22037/ijabs.v13i2.50917
Abstract
Background and Aim: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotion-focused group therapy on emotional reactivity and interpersonal problems in male adolescent students.
Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study using a pre-test/post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all male second-grade high school students in Harsin city during the 2024–2025 academic year. A random sample of 30 students was selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups (15 students per group). The experimental group received emotion-focused group therapy over eight 90-minute sessions. The instruments used in this study were the Nock and Matthew Emotional Reactivity Scale (2008) and the Barkham et al. Interpersonal Problems Scale (1996). The data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA and ANCOVA) with SPSS-26 software.
Results: The results showed that emotion-focused group therapy had a significant effect on the emotional reactivity and interpersonal problems of male high school students (P<0.001), and 36% of changes in emotional reactivity and 20% of changes in interpersonal problems were influenced by the emotion-focused intervention.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be suggested that emotion-focused group therapy appears to be associated with improvements in emotional reactivity and interpersonal problems among male high school students. These observed changes may contribute to better mental health, which could, in turn, support individual and social well-being. However, due to the quasi-experimental design of this study, causal inferences should be made with caution, and further research with randomized controlled trials is needed to establish causality.
- Emotion-focused Therapy; Emotional reactivity; Interpersonal problems; Adolescent; Quasi-experimental
How to Cite
References
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