Eficacia de un tratamiento breve, grupal y virtual basado en la Terapia de Aceptación y Compromiso para la regulación de la ira en jóvenes adultos colombianos

Resumo

Although young people in Colombia are among the most affected by anger and aggression regulation problems, there is little available evidence on the characterization of their difficulties and, even more so, on appropriate therapeutic strategies for their intervention. Therefore, this research aimed to describe the difficulties in regulating anger in Colombian young adults (N= 222, 61.7 % women and 38.3 % men, aged between 18 and 30 years), identify the relationship between their anger and aggression manifestations and some indicators of psychological inflexibility, and design, validate, and evaluate the efficacy of a brief, virtual group intervention for anger regulation and psychological inflexibility reduction aimed at the same population. In the first stage of the research, statistically significant positive correlations were identified between anger and aggression variables with experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and obstruction in values, while progress in committed actions presented a statistically significant negative correlation with all the previous variables. Additionally, through various regression analyses, it was concluded that experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion were the variables that explained higher percentages of variability in most of the aggression and anger indicators in percentages that could explain between 12% and 52% of the variability depending on the analyzed model. It was established that the intervention protocol based on acceptance and commitment therapy for anger regulation (ACT-AR) has content validity considering the criteria of clarity, relevance, coherence, and sufficiency. To evaluate the designed intervention, 40 young adults (40% men, 60% women; M = 25.3 years; SD = 3.35) were assigned to one of two conditions: ACT-AR and wait-list. Experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, connection with the present moment, values, and perception of the effects of problematic expression of anger were evaluated. Significant differences were found with large effect sizes in the variables of experiential avoidance, cognitive defusion, contact with the present moment, and obstruction in values. The variables of progress in values and perception of the effects of anger showed changes in the experimental group, but not in comparison with the control group. The results provided evidence of the effectiveness of the ACT-AR intervention, Although young people in Colombia are among the most affected by anger and aggression regulation problems, there is little available evidence on the characterization of their difficulties and, even more so, on appropriate therapeutic strategies for their intervention. Therefore, this research aimed to describe the difficulties in regulating anger in Colombian young adults (N= 222, 61.7 % women and 38.3 % men, aged between 18 and 30 years), identify the relationship between their anger and aggression manifestations and some indicators of psychological inflexibility, and design, validate, and evaluate the efficacy of a brief, virtual group intervention for anger regulation and psychological inflexibility reduction aimed at the same population. In the first stage of the research, statistically significant positive correlations were identified between anger and aggression variables with experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and obstruction in values, while progress in committed actions presented a statistically significant negative correlation with all the previous variables. Additionally, through various regression analyses, it was concluded that experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion were the variables that explained higher percentages of variability in most of the aggression and anger indicators in percentages that could explain between 12% and 52% of the variability depending on the analyzed model. It was established that the intervention protocol based on acceptance and commitment therapy for anger regulation (ACT-AR) has content validity considering the criteria of clarity, relevance, coherence, and sufficiency. To evaluate the designed intervention, 40 young adults (40% men, 60% women; M = 25.3 years; SD = 3.35) were assigned to one of two conditions: ACT-AR and wait-list. Experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, connection with the present moment, values, and perception of the effects of problematic expression of anger were evaluated. Significant differences were found with large effect sizes in the variables of experiential avoidance, cognitive defusion, contact with the present moment, and obstruction in values. The variables of progress in values and perception of the effects of anger showed changes in the experimental group, but not in comparison with the control group. The results provided evidence of the effectiveness of the ACT-AR intervention, although further studies are needed to confirm this.