Abstract
This paper presents an effectiveness study of Tuned In, a novel emotion regulation intervention that uses participant selected music to evoke emotions in session and teaches participants emotional awareness and regulation skills. The group program content is informed by a two dimensional model of emotion (arousal, valence), along with music psychology theories about how music evokes emotional responses. The program has been evaluated in two samples of adolescents: 41 “at risk” adolescents (76% males; Mage = 14.8 years) attending an educational re-engagement program and 216 students (100% females; Mage = 13.6 years) attending a mainstream secondary school. Results showed significant pre- to post-program improvements in measures of emotion awareness, identification, and regulation (p < 0.01 to p = 0.06 in the smaller “at risk” sample and all p < 0.001 in the mainstream school sample). Participant ratings of engagement and likelihood of using the strategies learned in the program were high. Tuned In shows promise as a brief emotion regulation intervention for adolescents, and these findings extend an earlier study with young adults. Tuned In is a-theoretical in regard to psychotherapeutic approach and could be integrated with other program components as required.
Highlights
Effective emotion regulation relies on an individual’s awareness of their own and others’ emotions, the development of a lexicon to label a range of emotional states, and strategies to modulate emotions to suit the context
An early trial of the program found it to enhance emotional clarity and regulation among young adults (Dingle and Fay, under review), and the current study extends on this work with an investigation of the effectiveness of Tuned In for enhancing emotion awareness and regulation of healthy and at-risk adolescents in educational contexts
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Tuned In among two adolescent samples in real world educational contexts: a sample of adolescents who had disengaged from school due to learning and psychosocial problems and were enrolled in an experiential learning program run by the non-Government organization BoysTown; and a sample of students at a mainstream girls secondary school in a suburb of a metropolitan city in Australia
Summary
Effective emotion regulation relies on an individual’s awareness of their own and others’ emotions, the development of a lexicon to label a range of emotional states, and strategies to modulate emotions to suit the context. These abilities develop throughout childhood and adolescence, the rate of acquisition varies across emotions and stimuli. The Tuned In program was designed to train young people in emotion awareness, labeling, and regulation, using music listening as an engaging and meaningful way of evoking emotions during sessions. An early trial of the program found it to enhance emotional clarity and regulation among young adults (Dingle and Fay, under review), and the current study extends on this work with an investigation of the effectiveness of Tuned In for enhancing emotion awareness and regulation of healthy and at-risk adolescents in educational contexts.
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