Emotion Regulation Treatment for Irritability and Disruptive Behavior: A Preliminary Investigation.

Children with oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) represent a heterogeneous group. Within this group, a subtype of ODD has been identified for children with primarily angry/irritable mood symptoms who are at risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders. Despite the prevalence of anger and mood difficulties in children with ODD, evidence-based treatments for disruptive behavior disorders have primarily emphasized providing caregivers more effective parenting strategies to address oppositional and defiant behaviors, rather than directly targeting children's difficulties with emotions. To address the dearth of emotion-focused treatments for ODD, a novel emotion regulation intervention was developed and piloted. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, 7 children ages 8-11 (3 male, 4 female; all non-Hispanic White) were enrolled in a 13-week intervention with their caregivers. Tantrum behavior, mood, and emotion regulation measures were administered throughout treatment. Treatment feasibility was supported by participant satisfaction ratings as well as high levels of treatment fidelity. Multiple measures support the preliminary efficacy of the intervention in reducing symptoms of ODD as well as initial efficacy in improving child emotion regulation difficulties. Overall, results support further research into emotion regulation-focused interventions for ODD.