Emotion regulation and its relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression in children aged 8\u201312\xa0years: does parental gender play a differentiating role?

M E S Loevaas,O Hjemdal,T Reinfjell,K Martinsen,S.-P Neumer,A M Sund,S Holen,J Patras

doi:10.1186/s40359-018-0255-y

Abstract

BackgroundSymptoms of anxiety and depression are prevalent and highly comorbid in children, contributing to considerable impairment even at a subclinical level. Difficulties with emotion regulation are potentially related to both anxious and depressive symptoms. Research looking at maternal contributions to children’s mental health dominates the literature but ignores the potentially important contributions of fathers.MethodThe present study is part of the Coping Kids study in Norway, a randomized controlled study of a new indicated preventive intervention for children, EMOTION. EMOTION aims to reduce levels of anxious and depressive symptoms in children aged 8–12 years. Using cross sectional data and multiple regression analyses, we investigated the relations between anxious and depressive symptoms and emotion regulation in n = 602 children. Symptoms were reported by the child, mothers and fathers. Emotion regulation was reported by mothers and fathers.ResultsSymptoms of anxiety, as reported by parents, were associated with poorer emotion regulation. This association was also demonstrated for depressive symptoms as reported by both parents and children. When analyzing same gender reports, parental gender did not differentiate the relationship between anxiety symptoms and emotion regulation. For depressive symptoms, we did find a differentiating effect of parental gender, as the association with dysregulation of emotion was stronger in paternal reports, and the association with adaptive emotion regulation was stronger in maternal reports. When using reports from the opposite parent, the emotion regulation difficulties were still associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms, however exhibiting somewhat different emotional regulation profiles.ConclusionProblems with emotion regulation probably coexists with elevated levels of internalizing symptoms in children. In future research, both caregivers should be included.Trial registrationThe regional ethics committee (REC) of Norway approved the study. Registration number: 2013/1909; Project title: Coping Kids: a randomized controlled study of a new indicated preventive intervention for children with symptoms of anxiety and depression. ClinicalTrials.gov; Protocol ID 228846/H10.

Highlights

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are prevalent and highly comorbid in children, contributing to considerable impairment even at a subclinical level
We did find a differentiating effect of parental gender, as the association with dysregulation of emotion was stronger in paternal reports, and the association with adaptive emotion regulation was stronger in maternal reports
The correlation between the symptoms score and emotion regulation ranged between 0.68 (p < 0.001) for depression and Emotion regulation checklist (ERC) L/N reported by fathers and 0.00 (p > 0.05) for child-reported anxiety scores and maternal scores on the ERC Emotion regulation (ER) (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are prevalent and highly comorbid in children, contributing to considerable impairment even at a subclinical level. Preventive interventions for anxiety and depression are important in reducing the development of disorders later in life, and emotion regulation is one potentially relevant factor to consider [3]. The strategies used to regulate emotions are diverse and include, for example, help seeking, avoidance, attentional redirection, suppression, and problem solving. Development of these strategies is complex and interacts with genetics, biology, cognition, temperament, social environment, and learning [11]

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Conclusion