“It’s ok that I feel like this”: a qualitative study of adolescents’ and parents’ experiences of facilitators, mechanisms of change and outcomes in a joint emotion regulation group skills training

BACKGROUND: Emotion regulation difficulties underlie several psychiatric conditions, and treatments that focus on improving emotion regulation can have an effect on a broad range of symptoms. However, participants’ in-depth experiences of participating in emotion regulation treatments have not been much studied. In this qualitative study, we investigated participants’ experiences of a joint emotion regulation group skills training in a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient setting. METHODS: Twenty-one participants (10 adolescents and 11 parents) were interviewed about their experiences after they had participated in a seven-session transdiagnostic emotion regulation skills training for adolescents and parents. The aim of the skills training was to decrease emotion regulation difficulties, increase emotional awareness, reduce psychiatric symptoms, and enhance quality of life. The skills training consisted of psychoeducation about emotions and skills for regulating emotions. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in three overarching themes: Parent – Child processes, Individual processes, and Group processes. The result showed that participants considered an improved parent-child relationship to be the main outcome. Increased knowledge, emotion regulation skills and behavioural change were conceptualised as both mechanisms of change and outcomes. The group format, and the fact that parents and adolescents participated together, were seen as facilitators. Furthermore, the participants experienced targeting emotions in skills training as meaningful and helpful. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the potential benefits of providing emotion regulation skills training for adolescents and parents together in a group format to improve the parent-child relationship and enable the opportunity to learn skills.