Abstract:

Emotion regulation is an important social-emotional skill that allows flexible adaptation in social interactions, which means that learning cognitive emotion regulation strategies can lead to improved behaviours and reduced aggression. In this regard, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a program that aimed to reduce aggression by teaching cognitive strategies to regulate emotions. Forty-three men aged between 22 and 68 years (M=37.93; Std.Dev.=11.59) serving custodial sentences in a Romanian prison participated in the study. The programme ran for 12 weeks, one session per week. The aggression questionnaire was completed at baseline and at the end of the intervention. Cognitive emotion regulation strategies were also assessed at baseline and post-test at the end of the program. There was a significant decrease in aggression among inmates at the end of the programme. The results indicate that learning cognitive emotion regulation strategies may be an appropriate and effective method for reducing aggression.

Keywords:

Cognitive emotion regulation, aggression, teaching, delinquent population.