Meta-emotion-regulation: a conceptual framework for influencing emotion regulation behaviour

Callear, Harvey, and Bimler (2016, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41, 456) organized children's emotion regulation behaviours into a coherent structure. However, further investigation is needed to identify core patterns of these emotion regulation behaviours. To identify clusters and prototypal constellations of emotion regulation behaviours, the 85 behavioural items comprising the Children's Emotion Regulation Inventory (ChERI) were ranked by 151 parents in order of applicability, using an ordinal sorting procedure (Method of Successive Sorts). Responses were aggregated in empirical scales, for classification of the cases using hierarchical and k-means clustering. The scales were based on nine key 'hotspots' of children's emotion regulation behaviours, interpreted as Outward Engagement, Inward or Somatic Focus, Disengagement, Disruptive, Impulsive/Labile, Social Connectedness/Compliance, Generating Closeness/Intimacy, Establishing Order and Generating Disorder. Five summary styles of children's emotion regulation emerged and are characterized on those scales. These hotspots and styles provide guidance to clinicians, parents, teachers, and other invested adults to assess and support children's emotional development. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Measurements of children's emotion regulation predominantly focus on internal processes and/or isolated expressions of emotion regulation behaviours. Research detailing anger and anxiety emotion regulation styles exists (e.g., Carthy, Horesh, Apter, & Gross, 2010, Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 32, 23; Zalewski, Lengua, Wilson, Trancik, & Bazinet, 2011, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110, 141). Callear, Harvey, and Bimler (2016, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41, 456) developed the Children's Emotion Regulation Inventory to identify children's observable emotion regulation strategies. What does this study add? Research does not investigate which clusters of children's emotion regulation behaviours are most commonly exhibited and nor does it investigate emotion regulation behavioural styles. Examines how children's emotion regulation behaviours co-occur. Identifies nine core clusters (groupings) of emotion regulation behaviours most commonly observed to be exhibited in children. Identifies five emotion regulation behavioural styles (common co-occurring patterns of emotion regulation behaviour clusters) in children.

In this study, the relationship between negative core self-evaluation, emotional regulation, and academic procrastination in college students was investigated, and whether emotional regulation behavior had a moderating effect in the relationship between negative core self-evaluation and academic procrastination behavior. A questionnaire survey was conducted among college students using the negative core self-evaluation scale, the emotional regulation scale, and the academic procrastination scale, and the data collected from 225 students were analyzed. Using SPSS 24.0, descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of major variables were performed, and hierarchical regression analysis was performed to confirm whether emotional regulation behavior had a moderating effect in the relationship between negative core self-evaluation and academic procrastination. In addition, the interaction effect was verified using the SPSS PROCESS Macro. The analysis results are summarized as follows. First, as a result of correlation analysis of major variables, there was a positive correlation between negative core self-evaluation and academic procrastination, and negative correlation with emotional regulation. Second, in the relationship between negative core self-evaluation and academic procrastination, emotional regulation behavior was found to have a moderating effect. Third, in the relationship between negative core self-evaluation and academic procrastination, the moderating effects of self-emotional regulation behavior and others’ emotional regulation behavior, which are sub-factors of emotional regulation behavior, were statistically significant. Finally, in order to improve academic procrastination behavior in counseling for college students with high negative core self-evaluation tendencies, educational intervention methods using emotional regulation behaviors, limitations of the study, and suggestions for follow-up studies were discussed.

Emotion regulation is a key challenge of early childhood. The present study examined emotion regulation behaviour longitudinally from infancy to preschool. The continuity of emotion regulation was explored within the larger ecological context of maternal childhood histories of aggression and social withdrawal and maternal use of constructive and non‐constructive behaviours. Forty‐five mothers with childhood histories of aggression or social withdrawal from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a prospective, longitudinal, intergenerational study, participated with their preschool children. Infants' emotion regulation behaviour was observed during interactions with their mothers when they were 5½ months of age. Emotion regulation in these same children as preschoolers was coded during an interference task using the Preschooler Self‐Regulatory Scheme. Longitudinal findings demonstrated continuity in children's use of emotion regulation behaviours from infancy to preschool. Higher maternal childhood histories of risk, specifically social withdrawal, contributed to the prediction of preschoolers' increased attention‐seeking behaviours. Mothers' use of non‐constructive verbalizations predicted more maladaptive styles of emotion regulation in their preschoolers. The findings highlight the importance of helping children develop adaptive emotion regulation skills from a young age and have implications for the design of preventive intervention programmes to help parents foster children's emotion regulation abilities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Affective Roots of Resource Heterogeneity: How Founders' Emotion Regulation Helps Create Social Resources in Startups

The Affective Roots of Resource Heterogeneity: How Founders' Emotion Regulation Helps Create Social Resources in Startups

Regulation of emotional behavior is essential for human social interactions. Recent work has exposed its cognitive complexity, as well as its unexpected reliance on portions of the anterior PFC (aPFC) also involved in exploration, relational reasoning, and counterfactual choice, rather than on dorsolateral and medial prefrontal areas involved in several forms of cognitive control. This study anatomically qualifies the contribution of aPFC territories to the regulation of prepotent approach-avoidance action tendencies elicited by emotional faces, and explores a possible structural pathway through which this emotional action regulation might be implemented. We provide converging evidence from task-based fMRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, and functional connectivity fingerprints for a novel neural element in emotional regulation. Task-based fMRI in human male participants (N = 40) performing an emotional approach-avoidance task identified aPFC territories involved in the regulation of action tendencies elicited by emotional faces. Connectivity fingerprints, based on diffusion-weighted imaging and resting-state connectivity, localized those task-defined frontal regions to the lateral frontal pole (FPl), an anatomically defined portion of the aPFC that lacks a homologous counterpart in macaque brains. Probabilistic tractography indicated that 10%-20% of interindividual variation in emotional regulation abilities is accounted for by the strength of structural connectivity between FPl and amygdala. Evidence from an independent replication sample (N = 50; 10 females) further substantiated this result. These findings provide novel neuroanatomical evidence for incorporating FPl in models of control over human action tendencies elicited by emotional faces.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Successful regulation of emotional behaviors is a prerequisite for successful participation in human society, as is evidenced by the social isolation and loss of occupational opportunities often encountered by people suffering from emotion regulation disorders, such as social-anxiety disorder and psychopathy. Knowledge about the precise cortical regions and connections supporting this control is crucial for understanding both the nature of computations needed to successfully traverse the space of possible actions in social situations, and the potential interventions that might result in efficient treatment of social-emotional disorders. This study provides evidence for a precise cortical region (lateral frontal pole) and a structural pathway (the ventral amygdalofugal bundle) through which a cognitively complex form of emotional action regulation might be implemented in the human brain.

Nurses working in the psychiatric ward are under high levels of stress. Such stress can lead to various physical, psychological, and behavioral issues. The current study aimed to explore the connection between social competence, behavioral emotion regulation, and health anxiety among psychiatric nurses, while also taking into account the mediating effects of cognitive distortions. The statistical population for this research consisted of all nurses employed in the psychiatric wards of Ardabil hospitals in 2024. A total of 250 nurses were selected using purposive sampling. The study made use of the Health Anxiety Questionnaire, Social Competence Questionnaire, Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire for data collection. Social competence and positive behavioral emotion regulation have a direct negative effect on nurses’ health anxiety, while negative behavioral emotion regulation and cognitive distortions have a direct positive impact; moreover, social competence and behavioral emotion regulation through cognitive distortions have an indirect effect on nurses’ health anxiety (p < 0.05). Therefore, social competence, behavioral emotion regulation, and cognitive distortions are significant predictors of nurses’ health anxiety. Consequently, hospital officials can reduce the health anxiety of nurses and improve the quality of nursing services by identifying the factors affecting the reduction of social competence, ineffective emotion regulation strategies, and cognitive distortions in nurses in the psychiatric ward.

Fifty-five toddlers (mean age = 17.7 months) were observed in a modified strange situation that included their preschool-age older siblings (mean age = 50.6 months). The toddlers were observed while interacting with their older siblings and again with the siblings and a stranger. Differences in the toddlers' emotional lability, latency to distress, self-soothing behavior, and comfort-seeking behavior across the two situations were examined. The linkage between the family's reported expression of positive emotion, sadness, and anger and the toddlers' emotion regulation behaviors was evaluated. The results revealed that the toddlers were more emotionally regulated in the presence of the siblings and the stranger than when they were alone with their siblings. In addition, mother-reported positive expressiveness within the family was related to higher levels of self-soothing behavior in the siblings-alone condition, and mother-reported sadness within the family was inversely related to toddlers' self-soothing behavior in both conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of social-context factors and family expressiveness for the development of emotion regulation.

Adaptive emotion regulation begins with infants operating jointly with their parents to regulate their emotions, which fosters the development of independent regulation. Little is known about when or how this transition occurs, or the impact of factors such as parental availability or premature birth status. The current study examined the use of self-soothing, attentional distraction, and dyadic regulation in full-term and healthy very-low-birthweight (VLBW) preterm infant-mother dyads at 5 ½, 12, and 18months of age. At 5 ½ months, dyads participated in the Still-Face procedure. At 12 and 18months, dyads participated in two free-play interactions, a puzzle task, and an interference task. Emotion regulation behaviors were coded using two systematic, observational systems. Results indicated that infants used less self-soothing and attentional distraction and more dyadic regulation as they aged. Increased use of self-soothing at earlier ages predicted increased use of dyadic regulation at subsequent ages. Toddlers used more independent, attention-seeking, and escape behavior during periods of maternal unavailability. There were no significant differences between full-term and VLBW/preterm toddlers' emotion regulation behaviors. Results from the current study contribute to the understanding of normative development of emotion regulation and the risk associated with prematurity.

The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of early childhood pain-related distress regulation. Concurrent and predictive relations between child-led emotion regulation (ER) behaviors and pain-related distress during vaccination were examined at 2 different ages using autoregressive cross-lagged path analyses. Toddlers were video-recorded at the 12- and 18-month routine vaccination appointments (12-month-old [N = 163]; 18-month-old [N = 149]). At 1, 2, and 3 minutes postneedle, videos were coded for 3 clusters of child-led ER behaviors (disengagement of attention, parent-focused behaviors, and physical self-soothing) and pain-related distress. The concurrent and predictive relations between child-led ER behaviors and pain-related distress behaviors were assessed using 6 models (3 emotion regulation behaviors by 2 ages). At 18 months, disengagement of attention was significantly negatively related to pain-related distress at 1 minute postneedle, and pain-related distress at 1 minute postneedle was significantly related to less disengagement of attention at 2 minutes postneedle. Parent-focused behaviors had significant positive relations with pain-related distress at both ages, with stronger magnitudes at 18 months. Physical self-soothing was significantly related to less pain-related distress at both ages. Taken together, these findings suggest that disengagement of attention and physical self-soothing may serve more of a regulatory function during toddlerhood, whereas parent-focused behaviors may serve more of a function of gaining parent support for regulation. This study is the first to assess these relations during routine vaccination in toddlerhood and suggests that toddlers in the second year of life are beginning to play a bigger role in their own regulation from painful procedures than earlier in infancy.

Addressing teachers’ ability to better navigate stress and emotional responses has the potential to improve classroom behaviors, student learning as well as teachers’ wellbeing. While there is growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), there is need for greater attention to design aligned with relevant theories and transparent reporting to improve the rigor and translation of research. While utilized widely in health and behavior fields, behavior change theory has not been applied extensively in education or MBI research. This descriptive methodological paper articulates the intervention mapping and design process of an MBI to improve teachers’ stress and emotional regulation. To improve reporting, we use a post hoc application of a well-established behavioral model. Application of the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) as part of an intervention mapping approach for an MBI to align teacher’s needs with intervention elements most likely to achieve desired behavioral outcomes. The paper illustrates an approach which includes defining the problem in behavioral terms, identification of target behaviors and behavioral change techniques, and selection of strategies and modes of intervention delivery. A systematic intervention mapping approach applying the BCW can yield a holistic MBI for the desired behavior change, enhanced emotion and stress regulation in teachers. This example of applying the BCW to the design of an MBI demonstrates how intervention designers and researchers can make decisions about which techniques and delivery components to include in their interventions, and how to systematically describe them. Such approaches have the potential to improve the reporting and methodological rigor of future MBI research and the successful application of interventions in practice.

This study examined the concurrent and predictive relations between infant attention skills, joint attention, and emotion regulation. Infants' gaze following skills and duration of orienting were assessed at 6 months of age, and collaborative joint attention and emotion regulation skills were assessed at 24 months of age. The results indicated that infants' ability to follow direction of gaze at 6 months was significantly correlated with emotion regulation strategy use at 24 months of age, and that collaborative joint attention at 24 months was significantly correlated with emotion regulation strategy use at 24 months of age. The results of this study are consistent with previous research finding associations between collaborative joint attention and children's emotion regulation behaviour. These data also suggest that children's preexisting visual attention skills may contribute to their ability to regulate emotion.

This study examined the concurrent and predictive relations between infant attention skills, joint attention, and emotion regulation. Infants' gaze following skills and duration of orienting were assessed at 6 months of age, and collaborative joint attention and emotion regulation skills were assessed at 24 months of age. The results indicated that infants' ability to follow direction of gaze at 6 months was significantly correlated with emotion regulation strategy use at 24 months of age, and that collaborative joint attention at 24 months was significantly correlated with emotion regulation strategy use at 24 months of age. The results of this study are consistent with previous research finding associations between collaborative joint attention and children's emotion regulation behaviour. These data also suggest that children's preexisting visual attention skills may contribute to their ability to regulate emotion.

What role do situational factors play in emotion regulation behavior in everyday life, and is this moderated by age? We present data from a longitudinal experience sampling study (N = 236, ages 18-87) measuring emotion regulation tactic and acceptance use and everyday life situations, with 35 reports over 7 days in three total bursts 4 weeks apart. Older ages were nonlinearly associated with increased likelihood of using positive-approaching tactics, peaking among the oldest individuals. However, tactic use fluctuated with certain self-reported objective situational types and subjective perceived characteristics of situations, with some age-related moderation: Older adults were more likely to use positive-approaching tactics specifically during emotion regulation events involving social interaction. In general, older ages were associated with a lower likelihood of using negative-receding tactics; younger adults were more likely to use these tactics in emotion regulation events involving romantic partners. Age also moderated the use of acceptance in some situations: Older adults were more likely to use emotional acceptance in romantic partner contexts and situational acceptance in objective work-related contexts. Examining emotion regulation tactic and acceptance use within situational contexts may help isolate the specific emotional situations that amplify (or minimize) age differences in emotion regulation behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding the link between depression and pain