Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Education on Enhancing Academic Resilience and Self-Regulation in Adolescent Girls

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an emotion-focused educational program on academic resilience and self-regulation skills in female high school students experiencing academic decline. Methods and Materials: A quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up design was conducted. A total of 40 female students from Qarchak City, Iran, were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 20) or a control group (n = 20). The intervention included eight 90-minute sessions of emotion-focused education. Academic resilience and self-regulation were assessed using validated scales. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA, with effect sizes reported. Findings: Significant improvements were observed in the experimental group compared to the control group for both academic resilience (F(1, 42) = 270.440, p < .001, η² = 0.676) and self-regulation (F(1, 64) = 293.565, p < .001, η² = 0.665). Bonferroni post-hoc tests revealed sustained improvements from pre-test to post-test (p < .001) and from pre-test to follow-up (p < .001). The experimental group demonstrated an average increase of 25.4% in resilience scores and 10.7% in self-regulation scores, while no significant changes occurred in the control group. Conclusion: The emotion-focused educational program effectively enhanced academic resilience and self-regulation in students experiencing academic decline, with sustained effects at follow-up. However, the study’s limitations, including a small sample size and convenience sampling, should be taken into account. Future research should investigate the long-term effects of emotion-focused interventions across various educational settings.