Heterogeneity of emotional cultivation strategies as a group composition variable among Taiwanese youth.

This study examined the role of group composition in an emotional cultivation intervention (i.e., BEAR group: Belief reframing, Emotional consequence awareness, Action control, and Regulating emotion flexibly through culturally appropriate strategies), a manualized group counseling and psychotherapy model developed for Taiwanese youth’s emotion regulation difficulties. Guided by the Eastern philosophical principle of the “unity of knowing and acting” (Y. Wang, 1527/2006), BEAR groups integrate understanding emotion connotations (knowing) and cultivating emotion strategies (acting) as interdependent mechanisms of change. Participants were 638 Taiwanese youth across 109 BEAR groups. Group composition was assessed using the group-level mean and standard deviation of group member understanding emotion connotations and cultivating emotion strategies, the theorized change mechanisms in BEAR groups, as well as internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, which served as nonmechanistic variables. Outcomes included depression, social support, and school adjustment. Greater heterogeneity in cultivating emotion strategies predicted greater decreases in depression and increases in social support. Contrary to our hypothesis, lower heterogeneity (i.e., greater homogeneity) in internalizing problems was associated with larger decreases in depression. These findings underscore the value of grounding composition decisions in change mechanisms rather than symptom indicators. The results provide practical implications for group leaders in forming effective BEAR groups and suggest that cultivating emotion strategies heterogeneity may enhance intrapersonal and interpersonal adjustment. More broadly, this study demonstrates how a culturally grounded, evidence-based intervention in Taiwan informs group counseling and psychotherapy research and practice across cultural contexts.