What the study found
The emotional resources group, a brief emotion regulation group intervention, was associated with improvements in emotion regulation, self-efficacy, well-being, and functioning.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors conclude that the evaluation extends evidence for the intervention’s effectiveness in a real-world NHS clinical setting and establishes its credibility and acceptability in secondary care outpatient adult mental health services.
What the researchers tested
The service evaluation used a within-subjects repeated measures design to assess change in people who attended the emotional resources group. It measured emotion regulation, self-efficacy, well-being, and functioning in a secondary care adult mental health setting in NHS Scotland.
What worked and what didn't
Among programme completers, the analysis found highly statistically significant improvements on all measured outcomes. Effect sizes were large for all measures except functioning, which was moderate to large.
In a conservative intent-to-treat sample, the findings were similar: all measures improved significantly, with moderate to large effect sizes; functioning again showed a smaller effect than the other outcomes. The primary measure of emotion regulation also showed good rates of reliable and clinically significant change across both analyses.
What to keep in mind
This is a service evaluation, not a randomized trial, and the abstract does not describe a comparison group. The abstract does not give detailed information about sample size, follow-up length, or participant characteristics.
Key points
- The emotional resources group was associated with better emotion regulation, self-efficacy, well-being, and functioning.
- Programme completers showed highly statistically significant improvements on all measured outcomes.
- An intent-to-treat analysis also found significant improvements across all measures.
- Functioning improved too, but with smaller effects than the other outcomes.
- The authors say the evaluation supports the intervention’s credibility and acceptability in secondary care outpatient adult mental health services.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Emotional regulation group showed improvements in mental health measures
- Authors:
- Emily Ford, Thomas Bacon, Robyn Gemmell, Sara Rae, B. Wiffen, Paul Watson
- Institutions:
- NHS Lothian, NHS Fife
- Publication date:
- 2026-02-24
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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