---

Background: Growing evidence demonstrate that mindfulness-based self-help interventions have benefits for physical and psychological health in different populations. Mindfulness-based emotional balance is a new program whose efficacy in form of self-help has not been studied so far. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of the program on the emotion dysregulation and self-compassion in a student sample.
Materials and methods: this study was a double-blind randomized control trial. Totally 80 students were randomly divided into two groups (40 people in each group) of self-help of mindfulness-based emotional balance and waiting list control. The Mindful Attentional Awareness Scale (MAAS), the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) were done before the intervention, after ten weeks, and at two months follow up.
Results: Analysis of covariance showed a significant effect of self-help program on emotion dysregulation and self-compassion in the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up (P<0.05), whereas waiting list control group showed no significant change in any of the scales. There was also a significant increase in  mindfulness in the post-test stage (p<0.05). All changes were permanent in two months follow-up.
Conclusion: In summary, the mindfulness-based emotional balance can be an effective, inexpensive, and acceptable self-help program to reduce the emotion dysregulation and self-compassion.

---

Background and aims: Sex offenders cause many problems at the individual and social level. The availability of appropriate assessment tools is one of the most important necessities for identifying and designing effective interventions and programs for the prevention and management of sexual crimes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of two questionnaires about attitudes as well as perceptions of sex offenders.
Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 250 individuals from all adults living in Tehran were selected by available sampling method and completed the questionnaires online. Attitudes toward sexual offenders (ATS) and perceptions of sex offenders (PSO) scales were completed by participants, and data were analyzed using mean (± standard deviation), Pearson’s correlation test, independent t-test, content validity index, content validity ratio, and confirmatory factor analysis in SPSS and AMOS softwares.
Results: Factor structure of ATS (trust, intent, and social distance) (RMSEA=0.045) and PSO (sentencing and management, stereotype endorsement, and the risk perception) towards sex offenders (RMSEA=0.077) was confirmed. Both scales had a good content validity. Also, a good reliability coefficient, from 0.61 to 0.85, was obtained for all factors. Factors had a moderate to strong correlations.
Conclusion: The findings show that these two scales are valid tools for measuring the attitudes and perceptions towards sex offenders that can be used for this purpose.