Effects of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills Delivered by Trained Peer Mentors and Standard School Counselling on Emotional Dysregulation Among Senior Secondary School Students in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the effects of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills delivered by trained peer mentors and standard school counselling on emotional dysregulation among senior secondary school students in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Emotional dysregulation is a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying the most prevalent adolescent mental health presentations in secondary school settings, yet evidence-based task-shifting models for its treatment in low- and middle-income country school contexts remain critically underexplored. A quasi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design was employed. A purposive sample of 48 Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) students (24 males, 24 females) meeting clinical screening thresholds for emotional dysregulation was drawn from three public secondary schools across the Karu, Keffi, and Lafia Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State. Participants were assigned to peer mentor-delivered DBT skills (n = 16), standard school counselling (n = 16), or a waitlist control condition (n = 16), with one condition per school. Both active interventions were delivered over 12 weeks in structured weekly group sessions. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) served as the validated primary outcome measure. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), with pre-test DERS scores as the covariate, was employed to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 significance level...