Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to analyze the effect of psychoeducation given to adolescents diagnosed with conduct disorder who were receiving treatment at a regional mental hospital for their anger management.

Method: A “Quasi-experimental design with pre-test–post-test control group” model was used for this research. In the first phase of the study, the “State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory” was administered to 34 adolescents aged between 12-18 diagnosed with conduct disorder who were being treated as inpatients at a children and adolescent psychiatry department of a regional mental hospital. In the second phase, 16 adolescents diagnosed with anger management problems according to the same scale were divided into two equal groups: an intervention group and a control group. Eight adolescents from the intervention group who accepted to take part in the research were included in a 6-session Anger Management Education Program, which was prepared by a researcher and scheduled once a week. During this period, the 8 adolescents in the control group only received medical treatment; no other form of intervention was applied. After completing the psychoeducation program, the “State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory” was administered again as a post-test to individuals in both the intervention and the control group. Frequency-percentage distribution was used for the assessment of the research data and the t-test was used for paired comparison.

Results: Our study found that post-education test score means for all the scales (State-Trait Anger, Anger-In, Anger-Out, Anger control) were significantly different from pre-test score means in the intervention group. In the control group however, the State-Trait Anger scale score means were different from pre-test following education, but it was detected that anger sub scale score means were not different from pre-test.

Conclusion: It is thought that the application of an Anger Management Education Program to adolescents with conduct disorder has positive effects on the adolescents’ state-trait anger. Positive changes in the anger scores of the adolescents in the control group are thought to be a result of the drug treatment applied.

Key words: Adolescent, anger management, psycho-education, psychiatric nursing