Effects of improving metacognitive awareness on emotional regulation and concentration in high school students

This study aimed to develop a program to improve metacognitive awareness using acceptance and cognitive defusion training to examine its effects on emotional regulation and concentration in high school students. A total of 409 students participated in a concentration test; 45 students who received scores in the bottom 20% were divided into three groups of 15 students each: metacognitive awareness improvement, motivation reinforcement, and control. The metacognitive awareness improvement and motivation reinforcement program consisted of eight sessions each while the control group received zero intervention. Participants’ negative emotionality, emotional regulation, concentration, metacognitive awareness, and learning motivation were examined thrice: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and after nine weeks of follow-up. Compared to the control group, the metacognitive awareness improvement group showed considerably higher scores post-intervention and at follow-up. Conversely, the motivation reinforcement group showed higher scores and learning motivation scores only in the post-intervention stage and only showed significantly higher concentrations at follow-up.