Adaptive Emotion Regulation Skills Research Articles

Internet-based emotion regulation training aimed at reducing violent revictimization and depressive symptoms in victimized depressed patients: Results of a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundDepressed patients who have become victim of violence are prone to revictimization. However, no evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing revictimization in this group exist. MethodsThis multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of an internet-based emotion regulation training (iERT) added to TAU in reducing revictimization, emotion dysregulation, and depressive symptoms in recently victimized, depressed patients compared to TAU alone. Adult outpatients (N = 153) with a depressive disorder who had experienced threat, physical assault, or sexual assault within the previous three years were randomly allocated to TAU+iERT (n = 74) or TAU (n = 79). TAU involved psychotherapy (mainly cognitive behavioral therapy [77.8 %]). iERT comprised six guided online sessions focused on the acquisition of adaptive emotion regulation skills. The primary outcome measure was the number of revictimization incidents at 12 months after baseline, measured with the Safety Monitor. Analyses were performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. ResultsBoth groups showed a large decrease in victimization incidents. Mixed-model negative binomial regression analyses showed that TAU+iERT was not effective in reducing revictimization compared to TAU (IRR = 0.97; 95%CI = 0.64,1.46; p = .886). Linear mixed-model analyses demonstrated that TAU+iERT yielded a larger reduction of emotion dysregulation (B = −7.217; p = .046; Cohens d = 0.33), but not depressive symptoms (B = −1.041; p = .607) than TAU. LimitationsThe study was underpowered to detect small treatment effects. Additionally, uptake of iERT was quite low. ConclusionsAlthough TAU+iERT resulted in a larger decrease of emotion dysregulation than TAU alone, it was not effective in reducing revictimization and depressive symptoms. Patients' revictimization risk substantially decreased during psychotherapy.

An investigation into symptoms of depression and anxiety and emotion regulation among older adolescents from low-income settings in South Africa

IntroductionMental health conditions (MHC) among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries, including South Africa, are estimated to be high. Adaptive emotion regulation (ER) skills can protect against MHC among adolescents. In South Africa, there is limited adolescent mental health prevalence data as well as little understanding of the associations between MHC and ER among adolescents. This study aimed to address these gaps by describing the psychosocial characteristics of older South African adolescents from low-income settings as well as investigating associations between depression and anxiety symptoms and ER. MethodsWe selected 12 schools in collaboration with two NGOs. Learners aged 15–18-years were recruited to complete a tablet-based survey. ER, depression, anxiety, and other psychosocial measures were included. Two multiple linear regression models were used to determine associations between depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, other psychosocial factors, and ER. ResultsOf the 733 participants from 12 Western Cape schools, 417 (56.90%) screened at risk for clinically significant anxiety symptoms, 423 (57.70%) participants for depression symptoms, 229 (31.40%) participants for PTSD symptoms and 263 (35.90%) for risky alcohol use. Depression and anxiety scores were found to be significantly positively correlated with ER difficulties and adolescents struggled most with identifying and utilizing adaptive ER strategies. The adjusted linear regression model reported that female gender, clinically significant depressive, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms and risky-alcohol use were all significantly associated with poorer ER scores, while self-esteem was significantly associated with better ER scores. ConclusionThese findings contribute to the South African adolescent mental health literature and to the research gap on the links between depression and anxiety and ER. Future research should consider further exploration of the relationships between psychosocial factors and ER to inform the urgent development and testing of appropriate adolescent interventions in this setting.

Testing Biological and Psychological Pathways of Emotion Regulation as a Primary Mechanism of Action in Yoga Interventions for Chronic Low Back Pain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Interventions that promote adaptive emotion regulation (ER) skills reduce pain in patients with chronic pain; however, whether the effects of yoga practice on chronic low back pain (CLBP) are due to improvements in ER remains to be examined. This study will test whether the effects of yoga on CLBP (improved pain severity and interference) are mediated by improved ER, the extent to which effects are related to specific aspects of ER, and the role of pain sensitization as a mediator or moderator of effects. In this study, pain sensitization will be assessed by quantitative sensory testing and gene expression profiles to examine whether pain sensitization moderates yoga's effects on pain or whether yoga and ER abilities reduce pain sensitization, leading to decreased pain severity and interference. For this 2-arm parallel group blinded randomized controlled trial, we will enroll 204 adults with CLBP who will be randomized to receive the yoga (n=102) or a control stretching and strengthening (n=102) intervention, which are delivered via web-based synchronous biweekly 75-minute sessions over 12 weeks. Participants are encouraged to practice postures or exercises for 25 minutes on other days using accessible prerecorded practice videos that are sent to participants digitally. Participants will be assessed at 5 time points: baseline, midintervention (6 weeks), postintervention (12 weeks), and 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Assessments of ER, pain severity and interference, pain sensitivity including somatosensory and gene expression profiles, and physical strength and flexibility will be conducted at each visit. The fidelity of the interventions is assessed using a manualized checklist to evaluate recorded group sessions to ensure consistent instructor delivery. The primary outcome will be the mean change in pain severity as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form at 12 weeks. The primary mechanism of action is ER measured by change in the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale total score. Secondary outcomes include pain sensitivity, physical strength and flexibility, pain interference, and quality of life. A mediation path analysis and series of moderated mediation path analyses will be conducted to test the study hypotheses. As of January 2024, we have enrolled 138 participants. We expect the study to be completed by May 2025. The study will provide important data for evaluating whether improvements in ER are responsible for reduced pain perception and pain sensitivity as well as increased quality of life in the context of chronic pain. The study findings have important implications for determining the mechanism of action for yoga and possibly other mind-body interventions as nonpharmacological therapies for pain management. The results of the study will inform the content, delivery, and measures for intervention trials involving yoga as a modality for relieving pain and improving function. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04678297; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04678297. DERR1-10.2196/56016.

Preventive Effect of a 7-Week App-Based Passive Psychoeducational Stress Management Program on Students.

Passive psychoeducation is an easily accessible and cost-effective self-guided intervention that does not use elements of active psychotherapies or require homework. The present study aimed to investigate the acceptability and efficacy of a 7-week app-based passive psychoeducation stress management program to promote adaptive emotion regulation and coping skills in university students (i.e., 80% psychology students). Participants were tested via Lime-Survey® at pre- and post-test with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). A stratified permutation block randomization by age, gender, and the DASS-21 stress subscale was performed. Each week, the psychoeducation group (n = 123) received different psychoeducation modules. At the end of each module, participants answered questions about their satisfaction with each module and adherence to psychoeducation. The control group (n = 130) received no intervention. The psychoeducation program led to a significant improvement in the adaptive emotion regulation strategy: "reappraisal" (p = 0.004) and a significant reduction in the dysfunctional coping style: "symptom-related rumination" (p = 0.01) but not to a significant reduction in depression, anxiety, and stress scores compared to the control group. Thus, the present study might demonstrate a preventive effect of an app-based passive psychoeducation program in students with low clinically relevant psychopathological symptoms.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Problematic Cannabis Use: The Role of Emotion Dysregulation and Affective Impulsivity

Problematic cannabis use is highly prevalent among postsecondary students. Consequently, there is a need to examine risk factors associated with problematic cannabis use in this population. The present study investigated whether emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and problematic cannabis use, and whether affective impulsivity (negative and positive urgency) uniquely moderates this relationship. Participants consisted of current cannabis users (N = 586) recruited from five universities across Canada. Participants completed an online survey containing self- report measures of ACEs, emotion dysregulation, negative and positive urgency, and problematic cannabis use. Among the sample of postsecondary students, 36% (n = 213) met the threshold for problematic cannabis use. Moderated-mediation analyses revealed that ACEs were positively associated with emotion dysregulation and problematic cannabis use. There was also a significant indirect effect of emotion dysregulation on the association between ACEs and problematic cannabis use at moderate and high (but not low) levels of negative urgency, and at moderate and high (but not low) levels of positive urgency. The moderated-mediation models remained significant when controlling for other facets of impulsivity. Results suggest that elevated levels of emotion dysregulation and urgency are important proximal risk factors for problematic cannabis use among postsecondary students with a history of ACEs. While ACEs cannot be modified given their occurrence in the past, interventions that aim to build mindfulness and adaptive emotion regulation skills may be beneficial for reducing the likelihood that these students will engage in impulsive behaviors, such as cannabis use, when experiencing emotional distress.

WEB APPLICATION METHOD "3D EMOTION COMPOSITION IN SUPERVISION" APPROBATION

The global pandemic has accelerated the development of the digital environment, face-to-face work is transferred online, so it is important to create tools adapted to the digital environment. The emergency of Covid-19 has raised the demand for online supervision. In supervision sessions, it is important to talk about experiencing emotions in a professional environment. Latvia lacks digital methods for working with emotions in supervision. The aim of the study was to adapt the 3DEC method, to create it as a web application for use in remote supervision and to approbate the web application "3D emotion composition in supervision" in individual online supervisions. The original method 3DEC is intended for the evaluation of emotional experience in the practice of art therapists (Lejstrauta, 2021; Vanadziņa, 2021). The theoretical basis of the 3DEC method is integrative and includes the following principles: visual representation of emotions in a visible symbolic form; play and play space (Winnicot, 2007); distancing as one of the cognitive emotion regulation strategies (Powers LaBar, 2019). 3DEC is also based on the Adaptive Coping with Emotions Model (ACE Model) (Berking Whitley, 2014). The adapted method “3D composition of emotions in supervision” (3DECS) is intended for work in online supervision with the aim to promote awareness of emotions, their understanding and self–reflection. Using distancing and view of other perspectives, the method helps the client to reflect and become aware of emotional experiences, as well as provides an educational function about the meaning of emotions. The 3DECS method develops emotional awareness and adaptive emotion regulation skills. Main results: 1) the web application has been tested and is designed to work with emotions in supervision; 2) the data of the approbation stage show that the web application is sufficiently simple and intuitive; 3) the web application is secure because no information about the customer and the customer's actions in the tool is stored; 4) there are no restrictions on the use of the web application in relation to the duration of the cooperation between the supervisor and the supervision client.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Poor Sleep Quality in Older Adults: The Influence of Emotion Regulation.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with sleep impairment across the life span, but little is known about modifiable factors that may ameliorate this relationship, such as adaptive emotion regulation (ER) skills. Data were obtained from an online questionnaire completed by a community sample of older adults (N=278). The questionnaire included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, an Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and measures of health conditions, and other sample demographics. Moderation analyses were used to examine the interaction between ACEs and 5 adaptive ER skills of CERQ on sleep quality in older adults, while accounting for the effects of age, sex, income, body mass index, and health. ACEs were significantly associated with worse sleep quality in older adults, and this effect was moderated by positive reappraisal and refocusing on planning (all ps < .05). For individuals reporting greater use of these ER skills, ACEs had no effect on sleep quality, whereas for individuals reporting less frequent use of these ER skills, ACEs were associated with substantially worse sleep quality. This relationship remained significant after accounting for age, sex, income, body mass index, and health conditions in the model. The effects of ACEs on sleep quality persist into older age; however, greater use of ER skills that focus on positively reframing negative events and identifying strategies for coping protect against sleep impairment in individuals with higher ACEs.

A preliminary evaluation of unified protocol in anxiety disorders in India: a multiple baseline study protocol

Background: Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent with high rates of comorbidity. Single disease protocols have been the predominant choice of psychological treatment, however, there has been an increasing focus on transdiagnostic, shared mechanisms. Unified protocol is an emotion-focused CBT that addresses core vulnerabilities by training individuals in adaptive emotion regulation skills. UP has gained research attention in the management of emotional disorders with its modular approach. A challenge in psychotherapy research has been to understand the mechanisms of interventions and their effect on symptoms. Thus single-case experimental design has the potential to address some of the key questions. We present a research protocol that aims to examine the effectiveness of the unified protocol, using the SCED. Methods: A single-case experimental design, with multiple baseline assessments, will be employed, with random allocation to 2- or 3-week baselines. Patients with a primary diagnosis of anxiety disorder, consenting to baseline assessments, and stabilized at least for 4 weeks of medication will be recruited. Assessments will be carried out at baseline, post, and three months, in addition to weekly assessments on the primary outcome measure, anxiety by an independent blind rater. Secondary outcomes include intolerance to uncertainty, neuroticism, emotion regulation, and anxiety sensitivity. Conclusions: The findings of this study would contribute to the empirical status of transdiagnostic interventions in symptom reduction and in addressing shared mechanisms, enhancing its clinical relevance for co-morbid disorders. Trial Registration: The study has been registered in clinical trials registry of India, No. CTRI/2021/01/030803; 28 January 2021.

Emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming

Gaming disorder (i.e., gaming addiction) is a relatively common mental health disorder with a worldwide prevalence rate of 3.05%. In the present research, we examined whether emotion dysregulation mediates the relation between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in two samples of current video game players. The first sample consisted of 1,262 students recruited from five universities across Canada. The second sample comprised 417 community adults residing in Canada. Both samples of participants completed an online survey which included measures of adverse childhood experiences, problematic gaming, and emotion dysregulation. A total of 45.64% (n = 576) in the university sample and 49.76% (n = 205) in the community sample met the threshold for problematic gaming. In the student sample, adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with problematic gaming. In contrast, there was no significant association between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in the community sample. In both samples, adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with emotion dysregulation, and emotion dysregulation was positively associated with problematic gaming. Importantly for the present research, emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in both the university and community sample. Although adverse childhood experiences are distal and static risk factors for problematic gaming, emotion dysregulation is a more proximal and modifiable risk factor. The results suggest that increasing adaptive emotion regulation skills may decrease the risk of problematic gaming among individuals who have experienced an adverse childhood experience.

A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy on improving emotional regulation and communication skills of adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder

Introduction: Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is one of the crucial disorders in childhood and adolescence which is externalizing spectrum disorders. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy on improving emotional regulation and communication skills of adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder. Method: This research has been executed in context of a clinical trial plan with pre-test and post-test and one-month follow up period. Among the students with oppositional defiant disorder of junior school in Urmia city who were studying in the (school) year 2020- 2021 that 51 people were purposefully selected and placed randomly in three groups (17 people for cognitive-behavioral therapy, 17 people for hypnotherapy and 17 people for control) with the assistance of schools’ teachers and principals, parents and utilizing diagnostic interviews and also supplying the inclusion criteria in research. Then cognitivebehavioral therapy and hypnotherapy group has intervened based on intervention stranded protocols but members of the control group did not receive any intervention. After the end of a month, a follow-up test was performed and the research scales were used again. Tools of this research included: Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and the communication skills inventory. SPSS-22 software and repeated measures analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Results: The results of this research indicated that both cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy improve communication (F=1.53, P&gt;0.224) and adaptive emotion regulation skills (F=2.45, P&gt;0.575) and reduction of maladaptive emotion regulation skills (F=2.56, P&gt;0.127) were equally affected and there was no significant difference between them. Conclusion: The results of this study signify that both hypnotherapy and cognitive- behavioral therapy can be effective equally in improving emotion regulation and communication skills and these investigations can be used to cope with adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder.

"I'll Worry About It Tomorrow" - Fostering Emotion Regulation Skills to Overcome Procrastination.

Procrastination remains an omnipresent phenomenon impeding especially students’ academic performance and well-being. Preliminary findings suggest that procrastination emerges due to dysfunctional emotion regulation efforts to regulate aversive emotions. This study’s objective was to clarify whether the enhancement of general adaptive emotion regulation skills reduces subsequent procrastination. For the purpose of this study, data from a two-armed randomized controlled trial (RCT) with (N = 148) university students, comprising an active intervention (IG) and a passive wait-list control (WLC) group, was collected. Participants of the intervention group were provided with an online emotion regulation training over a period of 9 weeks. The results showed that the enhancement of general emotion regulation skills significantly reduced subsequent procrastination behavior within the IG as compared to the untreated WLC. Moreover, subsequent mediation analyses revealed that the reduction of procrastination was significantly mediated by the increase in general ER skills. The present results suggest that trainings which enhance general ER skills are an appropriate measure to reduce procrastination behavior among university students. The practical value of ER training interventions, particularly for student populations, is discussed.

Efficacy of dialectical behavior therapy-A in adolescents with dissociative disorder in India: An open-label trial

Introduction: Dialectical behavior therapy-A (DBT-A) is a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents. To date, there is no empirically validated research for adolescents diagnosed with dissociative disorder (DD) which implies the efficacy of DBT-A. Methods: This was a hospital-based, prospective, open-label trial based on purposive sampling. It was conducted on 40 adolescents diagnosed with DD. They were divided into study group (N = 20) and treatment-as-usual (TAU; N = 20). The TAU group did not receive any psychotherapy apart from medications, but in the study group, they received pharmacotherapy along with DBT-A module (20 sessions). Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used as outcome measures before and after the intervention and compared between the two groups. Results: Findings suggested improvement in the spectrum of dissociative symptoms and cognitive emotion regulations (maladaptive) in sample over 8 weeks at the postassessment phase. However, the outcome measures did not reflect significant improvement in the case of adaptive emotion regulation skills at the post-tests. Further, analyses suggested a mild-to-moderate effect size in terms of therapeutic efficacy in the study group compared to TAU. Conclusion: DBT-A intervention module is an effective addition to the management of adolescents diagnosed with DD.

Regulatory parental feeding behaviors, emotion suppression, and emotional eating in the absence of hunger: Examining parent-adolescent dyadic associations

ObjectiveThe present study aimed to improve the understanding of inter- and intrapersonal processes implicated in emotional eating using a large community sample of parent-adolescent dyads. Method: Participants included 1823 parent and adolescent dyads who completed the National Cancer Institute's Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating Study. Parents and adolescents each completed measures assessing parents' feeding behaviors, and participants' own emotional functioning and eating behaviors. Actor-partner interdependence models examined dyadic associations among participants' reports of parents' regulatory feeding behaviors (allowing adolescents to eat for emotional comfort purposes, controlling adolescents' “junk” food/sugary drink intakes), emotion suppression, and emotional eating in the absence of hunger. Results: Multiple within-person, cross-dyad member, and divergent parent versus adolescent dyadic effects were identified that differed based on the parental feeding behavior that parents and adolescents reported on. For example, adolescents' reports that their parents regulate their “junk” food/sugary drink intakes were associated with lower levels of their own emotion suppression and, in turn, lower levels of both their own and their parents' emotional eating, whereas parents' reports that they regulate their adolescents' “junk” food/sugary drink intakes were associated with higher levels of their own emotion suppression and emotional eating. Conclusions: These findings underscore the complex interconnectivity among parental feeding behaviors, emotion dysregulation, and emotional eating within the parent-adolescent dyadic context, and support the use of preventive disordered eating interventions focused on enhancing healthy parent feeding behaviors and adaptive emotion regulation skills from a family-based perspective.

Contributions of Emotion Regulation and Brain Structure and Function to Adolescent Internalizing Problems and Stress Vulnerability During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study

BackgroundAdolescence is a period of increased vulnerability for internalizing problems, particularly following stressful life events. We examined how emotion regulation and brain structure and function were associated with internalizing problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and moderated the association between pandemic-related stressors and internalizing problems. MethodsData are from a longitudinal sample (N = 145, age range, 10–15 years) strategically assessed at 3 crucial time points: before the COVID-19 pandemic, early during the stay-at-home order period, and again 6 months later. We examined associations of amygdala and hippocampal volume and amygdala activation during an emotional processing task before the pandemic, examined use of emotion regulation strategies before and during the pandemic, and examined pandemic-related stressors with internalizing problems. ResultsGreater exposure to pandemic-related stressors was associated with higher internalizing problems both early and later in the COVID-19 pandemic. Youths who reported more frequent use of rumination before the pandemic and higher use of expressive suppression and lower use of cognitive reappraisal early in the pandemic had higher internalizing problems early in the pandemic. Higher left amygdala activation to neutral relative to fearful faces before the pandemic was associated with greater internalizing problems and a stronger link between pandemic-related stressors and internalizing problems early in the pandemic. ConclusionsStressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic are strongly associated with adolescent internalizing problems, as are individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation and their underlying neural mechanisms. Interventions that reduce pandemic-related stressors and foster adaptive emotion regulation skills may protect against adolescent psychopathology during this period of heightened exposure to stress.

A Longitudinal Study of the Relation between Childhood Activities and Psychosocial Adjustment in Early Adolescence.

Background: Although an increasing body of research shows that excessive screen time could impair brain development, whereas non-screen recreational activities can promote the development of adaptive emotion regulation and social skills, there is a lack of comparative research on this topic. Hence, this study examined whether and to what extent the frequency of early-life activities predicted later externalizing and internalizing problems. Methods: In 2012/13, we recruited Kindergarten 3 (K3) students from randomly selected kindergartens in two districts of Hong Kong and collected parent-report data on children’s screen activities and parent–child activities. In 2018/19, we re-surveyed the parents of 323 students (aged 11 to 13 years) with question items regarding their children’s externalizing and internalizing symptoms in early adolescence. Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between childhood activities and psychosocial problems in early adolescence. Results: Early-life parent–child activities (β = −0.14, p = 0.012) and child-alone screen use duration (β = 0.15, p = 0.007) independently predicted externalizing problems in early adolescence. Their associations with video game exposure (β = 0.19, p = 0.004) and non-screen recreational parent–child activities (β = −0.14, p = 0.004) were particularly strong. Conclusions: Parent–child play time is important for healthy psychosocial development. More efforts should be directed to urge parents and caregivers to replace child-alone screen time with parent–child play time.

Development of emotion regulation across the first two years of college

IntroductionEmotion regulation is thought to develop substantially from late adolescence into early adulthood; further, the rate of development purportedly varies based on personal and contextual characteristics. However, little research has explicitly documented this maturation in young adulthood or identified its determinants. We aimed to (1) characterize how adaptive (positive reappraisal, emotional social support-seeking) and maladaptive (suppression, substance use coping) emotion regulation strategies changed over time and (2) predict change in each strategy based on baseline personal, social, and motivational characteristics. MethodsWe followed a sample of 1578 students entering university in the northeastern United States across their first two years, assessing them four times. ResultsAs expected, social support-seeking increased and suppression decreased. However, contrary to expectations, cognitive reappraisal declined over time while substance use coping increased. Women generally used more adaptive emotion regulation strategies than did men; social engagement and connection and eudaimonic well-being were generally predictive of using more adaptive coping over time. ConclusionsOverall, students did not consistently demonstrate maturation to more adaptive emotion regulation and in fact exhibited decrements over the first two years of college. Students’ baseline characteristics accounted for substantial degrees of change in emotion regulation. These findings suggest potentially fruitful directions for interventions to assist college students in developing more adaptive emotion regulation skills.

EMOTION REGULATION DIFFICULTIES IN DEPRESSION

Patients diagnosed with depression often experience difficulty in regulating their emotions due to non-adaptive regulatory strategies (e.g., avoidance, suppression, rumination). Adaptive emotion regulation skills (e.g., awareness, acceptance, self-support) can be trained and improved through psychological treatment. The objective of this study was to identify differences in emotion regulation skills between a clinical group of patients with depression (n=56) and a non-clinical group (n=56), adults without symptoms of depression. Methods. The study was based on socio-demographic survey and three self-report questionnaires adapted for use in Latvia: Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz &amp; Roemer, 2004), Emotion Regulation Skills Questionnaire (ERSQ; Berking &amp; Znoj, 2008) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross &amp; John, 2003). Results. Compared to the non-clinical group, the clinical group presented significantly decreased scores in several scales of ERSQ: Understanding, Self-support, Tolerance, Acceptance, Modification (p&lt;.001) and increased scores in four scales of DERS: Lack of emotional clarity, Difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviour, Non-acceptance of emotional responses and Limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies (p&lt;.001). Conclusions. This study helps to identify the main emotion regulation difficulties for depression patients in Latvia – the ability to understand, accept, tolerate and modify emotions.

Cybervictimization and Cyberbullying: The Role of Socio-Emotional Skills.

Social and emotional competences are considered to have a crucial role in cyberbullying as, e.g., difficulties concerning emotion regulation and empathy can characterize both cyberbullies and cybervictims. Although, the dynamics of socio-emotional processes underlying cyberbullying are still open for research, as e.g., there are contradicting results concerning the role of empathy in cybervictimization. Thus, the aim of our study was to explore the specific maladaptive emotion regulation strategies characterizing cybervictims and to clarify the role of empathy in cybervictimization. Furthermore, another goal was to explore whether moral disengagement characterizes cyberbullies in absence of empathic and adaptive emotion regulation skills. 524 students (214 males, aged 12–19 years) participated in our research. We used self-report questionnaires to measure cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization, adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, moral disengagement, affective, cognitive empathy, and intention to comfort. Our main findings show that cyberbullying is associated with difficulties in socio-emotional competences. Cyberbullies and bully-victims demonstrate less empathic responsiveness and display higher moral disengagement than noncyberbullies. On the other hand cybervictims tend to use both adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies to cope with their negative emotions. In addition, cybervictims have higher cognitive and affective empathy than cyberbullies and bully-victims. Our findings confirm and extend the research on the relationship among socio-emotional skills and cyberbullying as well as cybervictimization. Moreover, our results have important implications for prevention programs targeting emotion regulation and empathy.

The Association Between Illicit Drug Use, Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression in a Help-Seeking Sample of Adolescents

The Association Between Illicit Drug Use, Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression in a Help-Seeking Sample of Adolescents Risk-taking behavior is a common phenomenon in adolescence. Even prevalence rates for illicit drug use are considerably high in youth and associated with a range of psychiatric disorders, especially depression and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). However, there is a lack of data investigating differences in psychopathology between different substance user groups. Therefore, aim of the study was to investigate occurrence of depression and BPD symptoms in different drug risk groups (no use vs. occasional use vs. frequent use). Further aim of the study was to examine risk profiles regarding single BPD criteria. Data of n = 347 adolescents (81.7 % female, mean age 14.95, SD = 1.50) presenting at the specialized outpatient clinic for risk-taking and self-harming behavior (AtR!Sk) in Heidelberg were analyzed. Results show that BPD is clearly associated with illicit drug use in adolescence. There is no difference between occasional and frequent users in terms of mean number of BPD criteria. However, frequent users differ from occasional users regarding greater number of impulsivity and anger criteria. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables there was no association between drug use and depression. Since even single events of illicit drug use are associated with higher levels of BPD, clinicians should rapidly target to stop consumption. Further, psychotherapeutic interventions for BPD in high-risk consumers should especially focus on facilitating adaptive emotion regulation skills in regards to impulsivity and anger.

Training Adaptive Emotion Regulation Skills in Early Adolescents: The Effects of Distraction, Acceptance, Cognitive Reappraisal, and Problem Solving

Adolescence is a critical developmental period in which intense experienced negative emotions need to be successfully regulated in order to decrease the risk of developing psychopathology. This study investigated the immediate and prolonged effects of training emotion regulation (ER) in 256 young adolescents (9–13 years). The four experimental conditions in which an ER skill (acceptance, distraction, cognitive reappraisal, and problem solving) was trained were compared with two control conditions (rumination, performing a cognitive task). Results revealed that: (1) happy affect significantly increased and sad and anxious affect significantly decreased in the four experimental ER conditions but also in the cognitive task condition. Rumination did not have beneficial ER effects. (2) In the experimental condition, the effects on sad and happy affect were more prominent after using distraction, problem solving, and cognitive reappraisal compared to using acceptance. (3) There were no long-term effects of the ER training (ERT) at 1-month follow-up. These results demonstrate that young adolescents are able to use distraction, acceptance, cognitive reappraisal and problem solving, but that the effects of those strategies do not outperform the effects of a neutral cognitive task. In addition, our findings confirm that rumination leads to the maintenance and increase of negative affect, at least short-term. Further research should explore the effects of a more extensive ERT on intense affect states in young adolescents and should investigate the supplementary effects of such a program compared to a neutral cognitive distraction task.