Reducing Aggression and Enhancing Emotion Regulation: Turkish Adaptation of Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP) for At-Risk Adolescents in Türkiye
摘要
This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a brief version of the Turkish adaptation of the Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (T-RIPP) program, a social cognitive theory-based program, on adolescents at risk of conduct problems. The participants were 120 adolescents attending ninth grade at a public vocational education center in a province in the eastern Mediterranean region of Türkiye. This study used a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design, with an active control group. The KAR-YA Aggression Scale and Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire for Adolescents were used to collect data. This study investigated whether the intervention would (a) decrease aggression and (b) improve emotion regulation skills, specifically by promoting the use of functional strategies and reducing reliance on dysfunctional strategies among adolescents at risk of conduct problems. The study’s findings revealed that aggression scores in the intervention group significantly decreased in the post-test compared to those in the active control group (p = .001). However, a notable increase was observed in the follow-up scores relative to the post-test scores (p = .001). In terms of emotion regulation, the intervention group showed a significant enhancement in functional strategies and a simultaneous decrease in dysfunctional strategies from the pre-test to the post-test (time × group interaction, p = .001). Overall, these findings suggest that the intervention was effective in reducing aggression and improving emotion regulation skills, although the reduction in aggression was not fully sustained at the follow-up.