| dc.description.abstract | Background and Rationale. There is a need to increase the feasibility and effectiveness of psychological interventions. The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether intervention elements from existing interventions targeted toward emotion regulation can be limited to so-called common elements, and whether these can possibly be used in more flexible ways in the mental health service's work with mental health problems in children and adolescents. A proposition has been made of the possibility of treating underlying psychopathology with these common elements. Common elements can be defined as a set of singular characteristics and intervention content, e.g., strategies and techniques, that are used frequently across multiple intervention studies. A key assumption will therefore be that different interventions utilize several of the same strategies and / or elements, and that these elements may give positive results independently of the intervention. However, there will not be a hypothesis that some of the elements are better than others; this is an exploratory review. Method. This thesis identified common practice, process and implementation elements from emotion regulation interventions aimed at children and adolescents. Using a common element methodology, elements from 39 intervention studies were identified. Separate analyses were performed on the total sample of intervention conditions (n = 45), as well as the sample that consisted of so-called winning intervention conditions (n = 23). Results. A total of six common practice elements were identified in the total sample: 1) Training in emotion regulation, unspecified, 2) Mindfulness exercise, unspecified, 3) Mindful breathing, 4) Mindfulness of thoughts/thought awareness, 5) Practice awareness, unspecified, and 6) Integration of mindfulness practice in daily life. As for the winning sample, there was identified 12 common practice elements. Six of these elements include the ones that were identified for the total sample, in addition to 6 new ones that are specific to this sample. The elements that are specific to the winning sample were: 1) Enhance own emotion recognition, insight into emotions, 2) Training in emotion recognition and differentiation, unspecified, 3) Emotional management, unspecified, 4) Psychoeducation, not specific, 5) Psychoeducation, about mindfulness, and 6) Self-exploration/self-monitoring of thoughts and feelings, unspecified. The most common combinations of practice, process and implementation elements were also identified in both samples. The differences between the common elements in the total and winning samples were based first and foremost on the presence or absence of common elements from the following categories: training in emotion recognition and differentiation, training in preventing maladaptive behavioral response to emotional distress, psychoeducation and self-exploration / self-monitoring, where elements from these categories were greatly more common in the winning sample. Conclusion. The common element methodology used in this thesis is very new, and more research is undoubtedly needed within this methodology. By identifying common elements from interventions aimed at emotion regulation difficulties in children and adolescents, systematic methods can potentially be integrated into evidence-based practice in flexible ways. | eng |