Don’t stop believing: the role of growth mindset and emotion regulation in promoting student success and well-being

Objective Parental emotion regulation plays a central role in the socialisation of emotion, especially when teaching young children to cope with negative emotions. This study aimed to explore to what extent parental psychological distress contributes to difficulties in emotion regulation, the way parents respond to children’s expression of negative emotions and whether two emotion regulation strategies are mediating mechanisms through which psychological distress affects parental responses. Method A sample of 307 Australian parents with children aged 3 to 10 years completed an online questionnaire that explored recent symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, the use of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal as emotion regulation strategies, and hypothetical parental responses to scenarios related to children’s expression of negative emotions. Results Parents who reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress reported more frequent use of expressive suppression and less frequent use of cognitive reappraisal as emotion regulation strategies. Mixed findings were noted, with expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal acting as mediators of depression and stress symptoms but not anxiety. Conclusion The findings highlight the need for targeting overarching factors such as difficulties in parental emotion regulation, not only as intervention for parental psychological distress but also for detection and prevention of maladaptive parenting practices. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: (1) Parental emotion socialisation is of key importance to children’s development. (2) Parental emotion regulation is a vital component of adaptive parenting. (3) Psychological distress compromises emotion regulation and functional parenting behaviour. What this topic adds: (1) Maladaptive emotion regulation may be present even at subclinical levels of emotional distress, thus highlighting the need for emotion regulation skills to be addressed preventatively. (2) Emotion regulation skills training in interventions with parents experiencing psychological distress may offer benefit in terms of parenting and child outcomes. (3) Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression may be two underlying processes which predict subsequent problems with parental emotion socialisation.

Adolescence is a critical developmental period within which young athletes are sensitive to influence from others. Thus, key social agents in sport including coaches and teammates may be important sources from whom young athletes learn emotion regulation. This study explored the relationship between athletes’ habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression and descriptive social norms from teammates and coaches (i.e., perceptions of the extent to which teammates and coaches use cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression). Based on the theory of normative social behaviour, social identity and injunctive social norms (i.e., perceptions of social approval) were examined as moderators. Regression analyses of self-report responses from 169 youth athletes in competitive sports (Mage = 15.5 ± 1.3 years) demonstrated that athletes’ use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with perceptions of teammates’ cognitive reappraisal, but not with perceptions of coaches’ cognitive reappraisal. Athletes’ use of expressive suppression was not associated with their perceptions of social norms around the use of expressive suppression. Moderation results were mostly statistically nonsignificant, with one exception: perceptions of teammates’ use of expressive suppression were positively associated with athletes’ use of expressive suppression under conditions of lower levels, but not moderate or higher levels, of injunctive norms. Overall, the findings demonstrate that athletes’ emotion regulation may be associated with their perceptions of what their teammates do, and that normative influence may depend on the source of norms (e.g., teammates vs. coaches) and the visibility of target behaviour (e.g., cognitive reappraisal vs. expressive suppression).

Investigating the role of emotion regulation in the relationship between childhood trauma and alcohol problems in American Indian adults

Important associations between emotional dysregulation (ED) and ADHD have been identified in adults, with a key manifestation of this being differential use of emotion regulation strategies: reduced use of cognitive reappraisal (CR), but elevated expressive suppression (ES). These associations have been observed at both behavioral and neuroimaging levels. The present study aims to explore the use of CR and ES in children with ADHD, and their relationship to ED. 148 children with ADHD and 265 healthy controls (age 9-16 years) were recruited and evaluated and correlated their ED, CR, and ES. Resting-state fMRI functional connectivity, with 6 amygdala subregions as regions-of-interest, were analyzed in a subsample to identify potential neural correlates. Children with ADHD showed significant higher ED, and lower use of both CR and ES. A significant negative correlation was found between CR and ED. Mediation analysis indicated that CR has an indirect influence on the relationship between ADHD diagnosis and ED. In the neuroimaging analyses, the functional connectivity between the right superficial amygdala and left middle occipital gyrus showed a significant group-by-ES interaction, highlighting potential neural correlates for elevated ED in children with ADHD. Children with ADHD expressed elevated levels of ED, and used less CR and ES compared to healthy controls. The lower use of ES may relate to abnormal amygdala connectivity in children with ADHD. This finding suggested that brain immaturity in children may preclude effective deployment of ES in emotion regulation processes.

The relationship between habitual use and real-time emotion regulation strategies in adolescents: Evidence from frontal EEG asymmetry

Cognitive reappraisal has been shown to be an effective emotion regulation strategy that contributes to mental health. Previous studies focused on sex differences in the frequency of use and ability to use this strategy, and the association of fequency of use and ability with executive functioning. However, there is a lack of behavioral studies examining whether the involvement of executive functions in cognitive reappraisal use and ability differs for men and women. Such a sex difference may inform the design of cognitive interventions directed at enhancing cognitive reappraisal use and ability. The present study used a sample of 125 Chinese university students and focused on one key component of executive functioning: working memory updating. Frequency of cognitive reappraisal use was assessed by self-report. Ability to use cognitive reappraisal and working memory updating capacity were each assessed with a laboratory task. The results revealed no sex difference in cognitive reappraisal use or ability. However, of primary interest, the ability to apply cognitive reappraisal was associated with working memory updating performance, but only for women. If confirmed in further studies, these findings suggest that cognitive interventions in general, and working memory updating trainings more specifically, are more likely to enhance the ability to use cognitive reappraisal as a means to regulate emotions in women than in men.

Emotion dysregulation is crucial to both poor social functioning and psychotic symptom formation in patients with schizophrenia. The efficient use of emotion regulation strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal, has been less frequently observed in the early phases of psychotic disorder. It is unknown whether neurophysiological responses related to emotion regulation by cognitive reappraisal are altered in early psychosis. Fifty-four patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP), 34 subjects at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis, and 30 healthy controls (HCs) participated in event-related potential recordings during a validated emotion regulation paradigm to measure the effect of cognitive reappraisal on emotion regulation. Late positive potentials (LPPs), which reflect emotional arousal, were compared across the groups and the 3 conditions (negative, cognitive reappraisal, and neutral). The relationship among LPP modulation by cognitive reappraisal and social/role functioning and severity of psychotic symptoms was investigated in the early psychosis group. The FEP and CHR participants showed comparably larger LPP amplitudes in the negative and cognitive reappraisal conditions than in the neutral condition, whereas the HCs presented larger LPPs in the negative condition than in the cognitive reappraisal and neutral conditions. LPP modulation by cognitive reappraisal was negatively correlated with positive symptom severity in the FEP patients and with disorganization severity in the CHR subjects. Inefficient use of cognitive reappraisal may be related to the impaired emotion regulation and psychotic symptoms from the very beginning of psychotic disorder. This study provides the first neurophysiological evidence regarding current concepts of emotion regulation in early psychosis.

Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibit marked deficits in emotion regulation. Past research has demonstrated underengagement of the prefrontal cortex during regulation of negative affect in those with PTSD, but has been unable to find evidence of impaired downregulation of the amygdala. One possibility is that there exists variability in amygdala reactivity that cuts across diagnostic status and which can be characterized using a continuous measure of individual differences. In healthy/nontraumatized volunteers, individual variability in amygdala engagement during emotion processing and regulation has been shown to relate to habitual use of regulation strategies. The current study examined whether self-reported use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression regulation strategies correlated with brain activation during cognitive reappraisal in combat-exposed veterans with (n = 28) and without PTSD (combat-exposed controls, CEC; n = 20). Results showed that greater self-reported use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with less activation in the right amygdala during volitional attempts to attenuate negative affect using reappraisal, irrespective of PTSD diagnosis. This finding is in line with prior work and extends evidence of an association between habitual use of regulation strategies and amygdala engagement during emotion regulation to a trauma-exposed sample of individuals both with and without PTSD. Furthermore, by providing evidence of individual differences in regulation-related amygdala response in a traumatized sample, this result may increase understanding of the neural mechanisms that support variability in symptom manifestation observed across individuals with PTSD.

Recent research has highlighted the importance of testing interactions between adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies when examining their associations with mental health. However, there has been little work on the interaction between adaptive strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and two forms of repetitive negative thinking (RNT)—worry and rumination. Furthermore, prior research has exclusively relied on self-report measures to assess mental health as the primary outcome and more research is needed to understand the psychophysiological correlates of emotion regulation. To address these limitations, we tested the interaction between cognitive reappraisal and RNT when predicting resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which measures heart rate variability across the respiratory cycle and is conceptualized as a transdiagnostic biomarker for psychopathology and emotion regulation capacities. We also predicted depression symptoms as a secondary outcome in an attempt to replicate prior research. In a sample of 233 undergraduates, we found that RNT had a negative association with resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia, but only among participants who reported low levels of cognitive reappraisal use. The effect of RNT on depressive symptoms was not moderated by cognitive reappraisal use. Overall, these results suggest that worry and rumination might have the most detrimental links with physiological functioning when people do not frequently use cognitive reappraisal to regulate affect. This study also underscores the necessity of utilizing psychophysiological measures when modeling interactions between regulatory strategies.

Previous studies link non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) to alexithymia and emotion dysregulation. However, the role of specific NSSI functions and the role of emotional valence in alexithymia, remain unclear. Thus, the present study investigated associations between lifetime-NSSI, alexithymia, and emotion regulation strategies (expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal), focusing on NSSI functions and emotional valence in alexithymia. A total of 328 participants (M=29.18years, SD=12.73) with and without lifetime-NSSI participated in the study. They completed online questionnaires regarding alexithymia, NSSI, and preferred emotion regulation strategies. A binominal logistic regression was computed to predict NSSI group assignment. Participants with lifetime-NSSI reported significantly higher levels of alexithymia, more frequent use of expressive suppression, and less frequent use of cognitive reappraisal than those without NSSI. Alexithymia correlated with a higher tendency for expressive suppression and reduced cognitive reappraisal. Both positive and negative emotional alexithymia were linked to NSSI, with alexithymia significantly associated with stronger endorsement of intrapersonal-positive NSSI functions. Key predictors of NSSI group membership included younger age, lower use of cognitive reappraisal, and greater difficulty in appraising feelings. The cross-sectional design precluded causal inferences. Findings reveal that individuals with lifetime-NSSI exhibit higher levels of alexithymia, favor expressive suppression as maladaptive emotion regulation strategy, and exhibit greater difficulty in adaptive cognitive reappraisal compared to those without NSSI. These findings underscore the importance to address emotion regulation and alexithymia in NSSI interventions. This is the first study to report a link between alexithymia and the endorsement of specific (intrapersonal-positive) NSSI functions.

Emotion regulation strategies as moderators of the relationship between negative life events and trait anxiety

Effective communication skills, including emotion regulation (ER) skills, are critical for physicians to manage patient interactions and their own well-being. However, ER skills are rarely included in medical communication training programs. This study evaluated the feasibility of ‘RE.COMMUNICATION’, an 8-h online synchronous training program designed to enhance communication skills, including ER, among physicians. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study primarily examined five feasibility dimensions including (1) recruitment procedures, (2) data collection procedures, (3) resources and the ability to implement the training, (4) acceptability and (5) suitability of the training. Additionally, the study attested the preliminary effects of the training through the analyses of change scores in communication competence and ER (i.e. cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) one-month post-training. First, several adjustments for future iterations regarding recruitment, data collection and implementation procedures were identified by the researchers. Second, the 52 physicians enrolled in the training rated very positively the training’s content, relevance, utility, satisfaction and applicability, indicating high rates of acceptability and suitability of the training. Thematic analyses revealed that group dynamics, trainer competence and practical exercises were particularly valued as strengths of the training program. And third, communication competence and cognitive reappraisal improved significantly 1 month post-training. No significant changes were observed in expressive suppression. While no changes were registered regarding physicians’ sex, differences emerged based on professional status: specialists significantly increased their use of cognitive reappraisal, and they displayed contrasting tendencies in the use of expressive suppression, with specialists increasing its use post-training. This study attested the feasibility of ‘RE.COMMUNICATION’ and highlighted opportunities for refinement, providing a foundation for optimizing this training program and designing a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Emotional dysregulation is considered as an etiologically relevant factor for posttraumatic stress disorder. The relevance of immediate and lasting effects of cognitive reappraisal, a prominent emotion regulation strategy, and its habitual use for the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in response to an experimental trauma are therefore investigated in our study. Eighty-five healthy women participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, which included an emotion regulation paradigm prior to the conduction of the trauma film paradigm, which was used to assess the development of analog intrusions. During the first phase of the emotion regulation paradigm, participants were instructed to use two reappraisal tactics (reinterpretation and distancing) to reduce negative feelings toward aversive pictures or to passively watch aversive and neutral pictures. One week later, these pictures were presented again during a passive reexposure phase. Ratings of negative feelings and blood oxygen level dependent responses in regions of interest served as main outcome variables. The habitual use of cognitive reappraisal was assessed by questionnaire. Reduced habitual use and stronger lasting effects of cognitive reappraisal, as indicated by reduced insula activation during reexposure to pictures previously reinterpreted and distanced from, predicted the development of long-term analog intrusions. Stronger lasting effects of both reappraisal tactics for women with long-term analog intrusions seem to result from stronger emotional reactivity processes. Women with long-term analog intrusions in response to an experimental trauma seem to benefit to a greater extent from a cognitive reappraisal training than women without long-term intrusions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Frequent and successful use of cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy that involves rethinking the meaning of an emotional event in order to change one's emotional response, has been linked in everyday life to positive outcomes such as higher well-being. Whether we should expect this association to be maintained in a strong, temporally and spatially close emotional context is an unexplored question that might have important implications for our understanding of emotion regulation and its relations to psychological functioning. In this study of members of the U. S. Embassy Tokyo community in the months following the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis in Japan, self-reported use of cognitive reappraisal was not related to psychological functioning, but demonstrated success using cognitive reappraisal to decrease feelings of unpleasantness in response to disaster-related pictures on a performance-based task was associated with fewer symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress. Moreover, emotional reactivity to these pictures was associated with greater symptomatology. These results suggest that situational intensity may be an important moderator of reappraisal and psychological functioning relationships.

Current conceptualizations suggest that individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) over-utilize relatively ineffective emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression, and under-utilize relatively effective emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal. In the first prospective investigation of the association between emotion regulation use and PTSD symptom severity among military veterans in residential treatment for PTSD, we found that: (1) at both treatment intake and discharge, use of expressive suppression was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms and use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with less severe PTSD symptoms; (2) from treatment intake to discharge, use of expressive suppression decreased and use of cognitive reappraisal increased; and (3) change in expressive suppression, but not cognitive reappraisal, from treatment intake to discharge was significantly and incrementally predictive of PTSD symptom severity at treatment discharge after accoun...