DBT-K for Adolescents: Feasibility and Preliminary Outcomes of a Creative Eight-Week, DBT-Based Transdiagnostic Skills Group

TL;DR

A new eight-week therapy group for adolescents with mental health issues showed promise in reducing negative emotions and improving emotional expression.

Contribution

This study introduces a creative, DBT-based transdiagnostic skills group (DBT-K) as a feasible intervention for emotionally burdened adolescents.

Findings

DBT-K significantly reduced negative emotions in adolescents over eight weeks.

Emotional expression strategies increased significantly during the intervention.

Positive emotions and self-esteem remained stable throughout the program.

Abstract

What are the main findings?
An eight-week, creative DBT-based transdiagnostic skills group (DBT-K) demonstrated feasibility for highly burdened outpatient adolescents, yielding significant reductions in negative emotions both longitudinally and within-session.While negative emotions decreased and the utilization of emotional expression strategies significantly increased, positive emotions and self-esteem remained stable throughout the intervention period.

An eight-week, creative DBT-based transdiagnostic skills group (DBT-K) demonstrated feasibility for highly burdened outpatient adolescents, yielding significant reductions in negative emotions both longitudinally and within-session.

While negative emotions decreased and the utilization of emotional expression strategies significantly increased, positive emotions and self-esteem remained stable throughout the intervention period.

What are the implications of the main findings?
Creative, brief, DBT-informed group interventions are a potentially viable and accessible treatment option for adolescents with complex comorbidities and problematic internet use in routine clinical care.These preliminary findings highlight the importance of targeting core transdiagnostic processes, such as emotion regulation and self-esteem, in intensive, age-appropriate psychiatric settings.

Creative, brief, DBT-informed group interventions are a potentially viable and accessible treatment option for adolescents with complex comorbidities and problematic internet use in routine clinical care.

These preliminary findings highlight the importance of targeting core transdiagnostic processes, such as emotion regulation and self-esteem, in intensive, age-appropriate psychiatric settings.

Background: Mental disorders and emotion dysregulation are highly prevalent in adolescence, yet access to intensive, age-appropriate treatments remains limited. This pilot study examined the feasibility and preliminary effects of a creative, 8-week, DBT-based transdiagnostic skills group for adolescents (DBT-K). Methods: 53 outpatients (aged 13–18, 50 female) with heterogeneous psychiatric diagnoses completed baseline self-report measures of internet use, emotion regulation, self-esteem, temperament, and psychopathology. During eight weekly group sessions, positive and negative emotions were assessed before and after each session; self-esteem and emotion regulation strategies were reassessed at the final session. Linear mixed models were used to analyze trajectories of affect and self-esteem. Results: Adolescents showed high baseline internalizing symptoms, low adaptive emotion regulation, and low self-esteem, with a substantial proportion meeting criteria for problematic internet use. Across sessions, negative affect exhibited a significant reduction, with a significant main effect of time and pre- vs. post-session condition. Positive emotions showed no systematic pre-post change and a small decline over time. Self-esteem height remained stable across sessions. No significant changes emerged for total adaptive or maladaptive strategies, but expression of emotions increased significantly. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a brief, creative DBT-based group is feasible in a highly burdened, transdiagnostic outpatient sample and was associated with a reduction in negative affect and an increase in emotional expression. However, the lack of control group, high attrition, short duration, and absence of follow-up emphasize that conclusions are preliminary.

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