A new Behavior Therapy preliminary study by Turner, White, and Ollendick tested a novel 13-session emotion regulation treatment for children ages 8–11 with oppositional defiant disorder marked by angry/irritable mood. The intervention was delivered to children and caregivers, and was designed to fill a gap in disruptive-behavior treatment: rather than focusing mainly on parent management strategies, it directly targeted the child’s difficulty understanding, tolerating, and regulating anger and mood states.
Clinical Takeaway: Consider supplementing standard behavior-management work with structured child-focused emotion regulation practice: identifying anger cues, labeling emotions, building coping strategies before escalation, practicing regulation skills during frustration, and helping caregivers coach and reinforce those skills at home.
In this very small pilot study, tantrums, mood, emotion regulation, and ODD symptoms improved, but the sample was only seven children, so this is best viewed as an early feasibility signal rather than a ready-to-adopt protocol.
Article: Emotion Regulation Treatment for Irritability and Disruptive Behavior: A Preliminary Investigation — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005789425001005