Introduction: Emotional regulation (ER) is a core variable involved in the onset and maintenance of mental health disorders; therefore, interventions targeting ER in adolescence represent a promising preventive action. The current systematic review provides a synthesis of the evidence on school‐based interventions on ER in adolescent students.Methods: Six electronic databases (Medline, Psychology Database, Embase, Scopus, Psychinfo, and Web of Science) were searched. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed by the Methodological Index for Nonrandomized Studies.Results: A total of 36 studies were identified. The interventions were based on different theoretic frameworks and focused on different components of ER. There were universal interventions that addressed the entire class, as well as interventions for a selected population of at‐risk students. Only one‐third of the studies were based on manualized programs. Small to moderate effect sizes were found for mental health and ER skills. Only a few studies assessed risky behaviors, and these studies showed a reduction with moderate to large effect size. Studies conducted on high‐risk populations showed medium‐high effect sizes on ER skills. In contrast, studies conducted on unselected samples of students showed greater variability in the outcome estimates. Acceptability analysis and attendance rates suggested that the interventions were well received by students. The lack of follow‐up assessments and the absence of sample‐size calculation were the most frequent methodological weaknesses.Conclusions: The content of the present review could be useful for professionals involved in the planning of school psychological services. Overall, the findings of the current review support the applicability and beneficial effect of school‐based intervention for adolescents. Moreover, the results clearly point out the utility of a multitiered model to structure coordinated and integrated preventive interventions and to optimize resources.

Background: Adolescents have been deeply exposed to negative consequences of social distancing imposed by Covid-19. There is a lack of longitudinal studies regarding the impact on adolescents of this unfavorable condition, and their results are controversial. The aim of the present prospective study is to assess psychopathological symptoms in adolescent students over time and to evaluate what type of impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on adolescents. Moreover, the association between mental health indexes, potential risk and resilience factors is explored.Methods: Psychopathological symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression, stress, emotional dysregulation, maladaptive behaviours), and potential risk and resilience factors (i.e., childhood trauma, emotional regulation skills, family function, personality traits) were assessed among a sample of 153 students (72% female; mean age 16.1 ± 0.49), living in a medium-size city in the north of Italy, at two time points: before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic (November 2019–January 2020) and 1 year later (April–May 2021).Results: After 1 year, we found an increase in mean scores on anxiety, stress for future uncertainty, and higher frequency of maladaptive behaviours. By contrast, the level of stress related to social domains (i.e., school attendance, romantic relationships, peer pressure) decreased. Dysfunctional emotional regulation skills, childhood trauma, low family functioning, and specific personality traits were associated to higher psychopathological symptoms. Cluster analysis detected three groups of youths based on their change over time in psychopathological symptoms: those who worsened (N = 23; 15%), improved (N = 55; 34%), or remained stable (N = 75; 46%). After controlling for baseline mental health status, those adolescents reporting increase in self-harm (OR = 2.61; p < 0.001), binge-drinking (OR = 3.0; p = 0.007), aggressiveness (OR 1.92; p = 0.004), and binge-eating (OR 2.55; p = 0.003) were more likely to present a worsened mental health condition.Conclusion: The present results suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have had a different impact on subgroups of students. Indeed, we found a global worsening of psychological well-being only in a subgroup of adolescents, otherwise other students remained stable or improved. Increased frequency of maladaptive behaviors was found as a predictor of worsened mental health, therefore interventions to strengthen emotional regulation strategies are warranted. Finally, the decrease of stress in social domains could be due to reduction of potential triggering situations, thus indicating only a temporary beneficial effect that requires careful monitoring.

Background: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the first-choice intervention for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); however, a notable proportion of patients either do not respond to treatment or relapse after CBT. Mindfulness-based treatment has been suggested as an alternative or complementary therapeutic strategy for OCD. However, only a few studies have focused on its application in clinical samples.Objective: To evaluate the impact of a new treatment, called “Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for OCD.” It is an 11-session manualized group intervention that integrates elements of CBT, mindfulness, compassion-focused therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy.Methods: The program was delivered to 35 patients with a primary diagnosis of OCD.Results: Participants demonstrated good adherence to the intervention. There was a significant reduction in mean total score on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS-TS) (P<0.001; Cohend=−0.72). One third of the participants (n=13) showed at least a 25% reduction on the Y-BOCS-TS, and 40% of the sample (n=14) were assigned to a lower Y-BOCS severity category after treatment. Significant changes were also found in depression (P<0.001;d=−0.80), worry (P<0.001;d=−0.79), alexithymia (P<0.01;d=−0.41), dissociation (P<0.05;d=−0.46), and general psychopathology (P<0.001;d=−0.58). Repeated measures linear mixed models showed that OCD symptom reduction was associated with an increase in mindfulness skills, in particular on the acting with awareness (P=0.006), nonjudging (P=0.001), and nonreactivity (P=0.001) facets.Conclusions: Overall, these findings are promising and they suggest that randomized controlled studies be conducted to test the effectiveness of this new treatment program for this challenging and disabling mental disorder.