The Effect of Emotion Regulation Training on Anxiety, in College Students in Egypt

The important role of Emotion Regulation (ER) in managing stress and anxiety is well recognized. Aims: 1) assessing the level of anxiety, and the level of difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) among University Students during COVID-19, 2) investigating the effect of the emotional regulation training program on the anxiety of University Students during the COVID-19. Methods: Part I, students will be assessed for their anxiety, DER, and the general impact of COVID-19 on their lives. The students will complete Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Part II will be a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) using a pre-assessment and a post-assessment. A voluntary sample of students will randomly assigned to either a group that will receive emotion regulation training or a control group. The training program is an adapted version of DBT skills training. The training program will include mindfulness, emotion regulation, and problem-solving skills through eight 90- min group sessions.

The training sessions were based on the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills (Linehan, 2015). Each group received eight 90-min sessions of the emotion regulation training (one session per week) carried out by qualified clinical psychologist. The training includes group gathering, homework and telephone consultation as needed.

Change in anxiety from Baseline to the completion of training three months later using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI): was developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck and it is a brief measure of anxiety with a focus on somatic symptoms of anxiety such as nervousness, dizziness, inability to relax (Beck et al., 1988). It has a total of 21 items that takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Answers are on a 4-point Likert scale and range from 0 (not at all) to 3 (severely). The values for each item are added together to get an overall or total score for all 21 symptoms that can vary from 0 to 63 points. A total score of 0 - 7 indicates "Minimal" anxiety; 8 - 15 indicates "Mild" anxiety; 16 -25 indicates "Moderate" anxiety; and 26 - 63 indicates "Severe" anxiety

Change in difficulties in emotion regulation from Baseline to the completion of training three months later using Emotion regulation difficulties Scale

The DERS is a 36-item self-reported questionnaire that assesses an individual's ability to regulate their emotions (Gratz & Roemer, 2004). Participants rate items on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = seldom to 5 = nearly frequently) to represent their self-perceived reactions to stressful emotional situations. The DERS produces an overall difficulty score in ER as well as six subscales: (a) Awareness, (b) Clarity, (c) Nonacceptance, (d) Impulsivity, (e) Goals, and (f) Strategies. Subscales are evaluated in such a way that higher values imply more difficulty.

Inclusion Criteria: Being an active student at the University Exclusion Criteria: Receiving treatment at the hospital during the time that the study was in progress Having been diagnosed with psychotic disorders Having mental retardation