<![CDATA[Adolescence is a developmental period that requires adequate emotion regulation skills, while adolescents from low-income (B40) groups in Malaysia face additional psychological pressures due to their families' socioeconomic conditions. This community service activity aimed to examine pre–post changes in alexithymia, difficulties in emotion regulation, and emotion regulation strategy use among adolescents in the PERMATA Remaja program of PERKASA UKM after a photography- and music-based activity program. Using a one-group pre-test–post-test design without a control group, 17 adolescents aged 13–19 years took part in two meetings, each combining a photography segment (emotion identification) and a music segment (emotion regulation). The Adolescent Alexithymia Scale (AAS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were administered before the first meeting and at the end of the second meeting, and raw total scores were analyzed in JASP. Significant pre–post changes were found on all three measures: mean AAS scores decreased from 71.82 to 65.18 (paired-samples t(16) = 5.946, p < .001), mean DERS scores decreased from 52.53 to 49.06 (Wilcoxon W = 105.0, z = 3.296, p = .001), and mean ERQ total scores increased from 32.71 to 34.53 (paired-samples t(16) = −2.359, p = .031). These results indicate changes in participants' self-reported alexithymic tendencies and emotion regulation difficulties after the program, but they do not establish that the program caused these changes, given the small sample, the absence of a control group, the multicomponent design, and the reliance on self-report. Controlled studies with larger samples and follow-up are needed.]]>
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