Comparing the Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Schema Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Distress tolerance of Adolescents with Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student, Department of Psychology, ShK.C., Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran

2 Department of Psychology, ShK.C., Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran

10.22034/jmpr.2026.71986.7027

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate comparing the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy and schema therapy on emotional regulation and distress tolerance of adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality disorder. The present study was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and a control group with a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population was adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality disorder who referred to counseling and psychological services centers of Isfahan Education and Training in the academic year 2024-2025. In this research, 53 adolescent (26 boys and 27 girls) were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (18 adolescents in the first experimental group, 18 adolescents in the second experimental group, and 17 adolescents in the control group). The adolescents in the experimental groups received the dialectical behavior therapy (Ten 90-minute sessions) and schema therapy (Ten 90-minute sessions). Borderline Personality Disorder Questionnaire (Leichsenring, 1999), Emotional regulation Questionnaire (Gross, John, 2003) and Distress tolerance Questionnaire (Simons & Gaher, 2005) were used in the present study. The data were analyzed through mixed ANOVA via SPSS23 software. The results showed that dialectical behavior therapy and schema therapy have significant effect on the emotional regulation and distress tolerance in adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality disorder (p<0.001). The results of the post-hoc test indicated that there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Schema Therapy on the emotional regulation of adolescents with borderline personality disorder traits. However, regarding the distress tolerance variable, a significant difference was observed between the effectiveness of these two interventions, with Dialectical Behavior Therapy being more effective than Schema Therapy. Accordingly, dialectical behavior therapy and schema therapy can be used to improve the self-image and distress tolerance of adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality disorder.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Modern Psychological Researches

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 September 2026

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  • Receive Date: 17 April 2026
  • Revise Date: 20 June 2026
  • Accept Date: 26 June 2026

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