Everyone should get to know that it’s okay to feel bad: adolescents’ and parents’ experiences of participating in a preventive emotion regulation skills training in a Swedish school setting — a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) have been identified as a core mechanism in mental health problems. Preventive interventions targeting ER in adolescents, both in universal and selected settings, show promising effects in reducing ER difficulties and supporting general health, though further research is needed to confirm these findings. Earlier studies also highlight the potential value of involving parents in such interventions to strengthen parent-child relationships and promote healthy ER, but this approach also requires further exploration. The aim of the current study was to explore how adolescents and parents described their experiences and perceptions of participating jointly in a preventive ER skills training in a school setting. Such experiential and perception-focused insights underscore the need for a qualitative approach. METHODS: The skills training consisted of five sessions of psychoeducation about emotions and ER skills. Twelve participants (seven parents and five adolescents) were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The participants expressed a general need for emotional awareness, including understanding emotions and ER, as well as recognizing the role of emotions in everyday issues. The perceived stigma associated with mental health and emotional expression, along with a lack of knowledge about emotions, was seen as concealing the need for emotional awareness. Parents were viewed as facilitating the learning and application of ER skills among adolescents. Participants experienced insights (e.g., increased emotional awareness) that benefited their daily lives, but also perceived challenges with preventive ER skills training regarding timing and the need for continued practice to maintain skills. Participants found the ER skills training to be valuable and meaningful. CONCLUSION: The results highlight both the benefits and challenges of jointly targeting ER preventively in adolescents and their parents within a school setting, particularly with regard to recruitment and evaluation. The findings also contribute to ongoing discussions in prevention research about the optimal timing of interventions, ER focus, and parental involvement.