Emotion Regulation In Adolescents Research Articles

A Serious Game for Emotion Regulation in Adolescents

A Serious Game for Emotion Regulation in Adolescents

Differential patterns of emotion regulation in sexual minority adolescents in residential treatment

ObjectiveSexual minority adolescents experience disproportionate mental health problems, including increased anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Minority Stress Theory posits that sexual minority people experience significantly more stress (e.g., via discrimination or prejudice) in their everyday lives, which can underlie these mental health disparities. Though group differences in mental health symptoms are well-documented, there has been less focus on symptom trajectories, which is critical for identifying effective mental health interventions. MethodSeventy adolescents ages 13–19 years enrolled in a short-term, acute residential psychiatric treatment program provided self-report measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and emotion regulation difficulties at baseline, discharge (~2 weeks), and one-month post-treatment follow-up. Adolescents self-reported sexual orientation and were stratified into sexual minority (SM, n = 37) or heterosexual (n = 33) groups. ResultsDepressive and anxiety symptoms and emotion dysregulation scores were significantly reduced at follow-up, compared to baseline. While there were no significant group x time interactions for depressive and anxiety symptoms, the SM group entered the program with worse emotion dysregulation scores, which improved more over time compared to the heterosexual group. ConclusionThese findings show that although sexual minority individuals can make substantial gains during residential treatment, emotion regulation difficulties are a particularly relevant treatment target. Emotion regulation, a transdiagnostic construct that typically develops substantially during adolescence, might be of critical importance when identifying effective treatment interventions for sexual minority youth. LimitationsAdolescents in this sample demonstrated limited racial diversity and likely displayed a higher degree of psychopathology than the general population.

Can a mindfulness programme in schools for students with ADHD symptoms improve emotional well-being?

Abstract Background This study employs a cluster randomized controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of a universal mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) in classrooms in improving emotional well-being and emotion regulation among adolescents with elevated ADHD symptoms. Methods The study comprised 342 students: 164 in an MBI group, 128 in a relaxation control group, and 47 in an inactive control group. Positive and negative emotional states and the emotion regulation strategies of rumination, acceptance, catastrophizing, positive reappraisal, and self-kindness were measured at the pre- (T0) and post-intervention (T9) and the 26-week follow-up (T26). Linear mixed models were used to analyze the intervention effects among all participants and separately by gender and ADHD symptom type. Results The results showed that compared to the controls, there was a beneficial effect on the MBI group concerning acceptance at T9; acceptance remained at the baseline level in the MBI group but decreased in the inactive control group. In contrast, in the inactive control group, rumination decreased at T9, and positive reappraisal increased at T26 compared to the MBI group. The MBI had no detectable effects on self-kindness, catastrophizing, or positive/negative emotional states. Findings on the emotion regulation strategies varied by gender. In boys, the MBI increased acceptance at T9 compared to the inactive control group, whereas in girls, the programme reduced catastrophizing at T9 and T26 compared to the active control group. Contrary in boys, MBI group exhibited less reduction in catastrophizing at T9 compared to the inactive control group. Conclusions Universal MBIs may have some beneficial effects on emotion regulation in adolescents with elevated ADHD symptoms. Both girls and boys might be responsive to universal MBIs as part of the school curriculum, however not all consequences are positive (especially in boys). Key messages • Universal MBIs in classrooms may have some beneficial effects on emotion regulation among adolescent with elevated ADHD symptoms; however, the results are contradictory and more research is needed. • Even though, universal MBIs may have some benefits, they may require modifications to lead to more beneficial effects on emotional well-being when used with this subgroup of students.

Fears of positive and negative evaluation and their within-person associations with emotion regulation in adolescence: A longitudinal analysis.

Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) has recently emerged as an important aspect of social anxiety, alongside fear of negative evaluation. These evaluation fears peak during adolescence, a developmental stage that is also often accompanied by difficulties in emotion regulation, thereby increasing young individuals' vulnerability to mental disorders, such as social anxiety. We aimed to examine the longitudinal within-person associations between fears of evaluation, social anxiety, and three emotion regulation strategies (i.e., acceptance, suppression, rumination) in adolescents. Data were collected from a sample of 684 adolescents through an online survey three times over the course of 6 months and were analyzed using random intercept cross-lagged panel models. At the between-person level, FPE was linked to all three emotion regulation strategies, whereas fear of negative evaluation and social anxiety were associated with acceptance and rumination. At the within-person level, difficulties in accepting emotions predicted FPE, suppression predicted social anxiety, and social anxiety predicted rumination over time. These findings reveal complex interdependencies between emotion regulation, social anxiety, and evaluation fears, both reflecting individual differences and predicting changes within individuals, and further elucidate the developmental trajectory of social anxiety in adolescence.

The Impact of Maladaptive Emotion Regulation in Early Adolescence on the Quality of Peer Relationships: The Buffering Effect of Perceived Social Support

The Impact of Maladaptive Emotion Regulation in Early Adolescence on the Quality of Peer Relationships: The Buffering Effect of Perceived Social Support

The relationship of emotion regulation and attachment styles in adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder

The relationship of emotion regulation and attachment styles in adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder

Cognitive control processes and emotion regulation in adolescence: Examining the impact of affective inhibition and heart-rate-variability on emotion regulation dynamics in daily life

Cognitive control processes likely influence the extent to which adolescents can successfully regulate their emotions. This study examined whether individual differences in affective inhibition and heart rate variability (HRV), as a peripheral index of cognitive control, moderated the association between momentary emotion regulation and negative affect (NA). Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA) over 14 days were obtained in 235 adolescents (Mage = 13.48 years; 106 females). At each assessment, participants reported their current NA and the extent to which they used cognitive reappraisal and rumination. Moreover, at three time points (approximately 1 year, 6 months, and just before the EMA), affective inhibition was assessed using an affective go/no-go task and HRV was recorded at rest. Results indicate that adolescents with lower affective inhibition reported lower average levels of daily rumination. However, affective inhibition did not moderate the association between either daily cognitive reappraisal or rumination and momentary NA. Consistent with hypotheses, the association between momentary rumination and NA was weaker in adolescents showing higher levels of resting HRV. Overall, findings may underscore the importance of interventions targeting HRV as a malleable factor for enhancing adolescents’ affective well-being.

Should Adolescents Listen to Their Hearts? A Closer Look at the Associations Between Interoception, Emotional Awareness and Emotion Regulation in Adolescents

Should Adolescents Listen to Their Hearts? A Closer Look at the Associations Between Interoception, Emotional Awareness and Emotion Regulation in Adolescents

Reflective functioning and emotion regulation in adolescents with a history of sexual offending: a comparative study with a non-offending control group

BackgroundSexual offenses encompass a diverse array of behaviors across various contexts, affecting numerous individuals. Despite the prevalence of sexual offending among adolescents, there is still a limited understanding of this population. To contribute further to the literature in this field, the present study was conducted to compare a group of male adolescents convicted of sexual offenses with a control group in terms of reflective functioning (RF), emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and emotion dysregulation (ED).Methods60 male adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (M = 16.90; SD = 0.97) who had been convicted of at least one serious sexual offense were recruited from male adolescents referred by juvenile courts to the Legal Medicine Organization in Mashhad, Iran, and compared with a control group of non-offending adolescents consisting of 60 male adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (M = 16.97; SD = 0.82) who were attending school. The groups were matched on age and education level.ResultsA comparison between these two groups revealed that adolescents with a history of sexual offending exhibited poorer RF capacity, greater use of suppression as an ER strategy, and higher scores in all ED domains (p’s < 0.001) except non-acceptance of emotional responses compared with the control group.ConclusionsResults suggest that RF, ER strategies, and ED need to be considered as important psychological factors in understanding and treating adolescents with a history of sexual offending.

The impact of emotion regulation strategies on disordered eating behavior in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes: a cross-sectional study.

Difficulties in emotion regulation (DERs) can contribute to disordered eating behavior in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D), although it is unknown how DERs may affect eating behavior in these children and adolescents. This study examined the relationship between disordered eating behaviors and emotion regulation in children and adolescents with T1D. For this cross-sectional study, 128 patients (aged 8-16 years) were recruited to complete the Diabetes Eating Problem Survey-Revised (DEPS-R) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERs). The mean age of the 128 patients (99 females) who completed the DEPS-R was 11.63 ± 2.27 years. The participants' mean DEPS-R score was 17.78 ± 8.56 points. Of the total sample, 61 participants' scores surpassed the established threshold, resulting in a DEPS-R positivity rate of 47.66%. The participants' mean total DERS score was 72.3 ± 21.15 points, and it was found that children and adolescents with T1D who had a positive DEPS-R screening result had significant differences in emotional regulation and that eating behavior disorders were positively correlated with emotional regulation and all dimensions scores. The prevalence of disordered eating behavior is high among children and adolescents with T1D. DERs are related to disordered eating behavior in children and adolescents with T1D. The novel finding that DERs may be a predictor of eating problems lends preliminary support for the inclusion of DERs in future risk models and as a potential target for intervention.

Maternal emotion regulation abilities affect adolescent depressive symptoms by mediating their emotion regulation ability: An ERP study

Adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) experience significant difficulties in emotion regulation. This study aimed to explore emotion regulation in adolescents with depression using an emotion regulation paradigm combined with event-related potentials (ERP) while investigating the relationship between maternal emotion regulation and adolescent depressive symptoms through a mediation model. Overall, 38 healthy controls (HC) and 57 adolescents with depression (MDD) rated the pictures they saw according to aversive reappraisal (reappraisal of an aversive picture or down-regulate aversive emotions), aversive watch, and neutral conditions. Adolescents with depression gave more negative ratings to aversive images, and the emotional regulation success index (ERSI) of adolescents with depression was lower than that of healthy individuals. ERP data revealed an elevation in late positive potential (LPP) amplitude during the aversive reappraisal and aversive watch conditions compared with that in the neutral condition in the MDD group. Compared with the HC group, adolescents with depression showed larger LPP amplitudes under aversive watch conditions. The aversive reappraisal condition evoked a larger LPP than that in the other conditions in the HC group in the late time windows. The ΔLPP (separating the variability in the ERP wave associated with emotion regulation) was larger in the HC group than in the MDD group. Mediation analysis revealed that maternal emotion regulation influenced adolescent depression levels through its effect on the adolescent’s emotion regulation. These findings provide important insights into the emotion regulation process in adolescents with depression and offer suggestions for clinical interventions.

Examining the Relationships Between Emotion Regulation and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behavior in Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Examining the Relationships Between Emotion Regulation and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behavior in Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Daily profiles of parents' supportive extrinsic emotion regulation of adolescents' negative emotion.

Parental support for adolescent emotion regulation is critical for adolescents' health. Yet, little is known about parents' daily support of adolescents' emotion regulation. This study aimed to typify daily co-parent supportive extrinsic emotion regulation (EER) profiles directed toward adolescents' daily distress and anger. The sample comprised 153 adolescent-parent triads; adolescents' mean age, 15.71 years (SD = 1.53), 51% girls. Over 7 consecutive days, adolescents self-reported their distress and anger, while parents reported their own negative emotions and their perception of the adolescent's negative emotions. Parents also reported daily on their utilization of seven supportive EER strategies, including problem- and emotion-focused strategies. Multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) identified four day-level profiles of parental EER; "low" (40% of days), reflecting low EER efforts of both parents across all EER strategies: "high" (12%), reflecting high EER involvement of both parents across all strategies; "mother-high father-low" (26%), reflecting mothers' high and fathers' low use of all strategies; "father-high mother-average" (22%), reflecting fathers' high use of all strategies, and mothers' low to average use of all strategies. The likelihood of specific EER profiles across days did not associate with daily changes in adolescents' anger. However, on days when adolescents felt more distress, the likelihood of a "high" parental EER profile was significantly greater than "low." Findings suggest a dynamic repertoire of co-parent EER profiles, responsive to adolescent heartfelt emotions but not hostility. The lack of parental EER of adolescents' anger might put adolescents at increased risk for anger escalation and the unhealthy discharge of anger. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) Approach in Improving Anger Emotion Regulation in Adolescents with a Family History of Bipolar Disorder

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) Approach in Improving Anger Emotion Regulation in Adolescents with a Family History of Bipolar Disorder

Family and parenting factors are associated with emotion regulation neural function in early adolescent girls with elevated internalizing symptoms.

A prominent tripartite model proposes that parent role modeling of emotion regulation, emotion socialization behaviors, and the emotional climate of the family are important for young people's emotional development. However, limited research has examined the neural mechanisms at play. Here, we examined the associations between family and parenting factors, the neural correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation, and internalizing symptoms in early adolescent girls. Sixty-four female adolescents aged 10-12 years with elevated internalizing symptoms completed emotional reactivity, implicit (affect labeling) and explicit (cognitive reappraisal) emotion regulation tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Positive family emotional climate was associated with greater activation in the anterior cingulate and middle temporal cortices during emotional reactivity. Maternal emotion regulation difficulties were associated with increased frontal pole and supramarginal gyrus activation during affect labeling, whereas supportive maternal emotion socialization and positive family emotional climate were associated with activation in prefrontal regions, including inferior frontal and superior frontal gyri, respectively, during cognitive reappraisal. No mediating effects of brain function were observed in the associations between family/parenting factors and adolescent symptoms. These findings highlight the role of family and parenting behaviors in adolescent emotion regulation neurobiology, and contribute to prominent models of adolescent emotional development.

The Role of Pain and Blood Simulation of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Emotion Regulation Among Adolescents With Depression Based on the Principle of Harm Reduction: An Experimental Study

This study aims to explore the role of pain and blood in emotion regulation during nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents with depression, which included 108 depressed adolescents with NSSI and 110 depressed adolescents without NSSI, to assess the impact of pain and blood on subjective emotional states, and pulse frequency (Pf), respiratory frequency (Rf), galvanic skin response (GSR), and electromyography (EMG). Significant condition×group×time interactions for positive emotions (β = −0.082, SE = 0.026, P = 0.002), Pf (β = −0.045, SE = 0.013, P = 0.001) and GSR (β = −0.041, SE = 0.018, P = 0.027) were found, indicating a significant increase in positive emotions and a significant decrease in Pf and GSR in the NSSI group post-pain/blood stimulus, especially within the first 10 seconds (for Pf, GSR)/3.5 minutes (for positive emotions) following stimulus. And Pf and GSR showed a more pronounced decrease over time in the NSSI group during the pain condition than in the blood condition. These findings highlight the significance of pain and blood in emotion regulation for adolescents with depression who engage in NSSI. Moreover, clinical healthcare professionals may be inspired by the pain and blood stimulus of NSSI based on the harm reduction principle, which provides new ideas for exploring potential interventions that can assist adolescents with depression regulate their emotions and reduce the occurrence of NSSI. And more relevant studies need to be carried out in this area.

Moderators and predictors of treatment outcome following adjunctive internet-delivered emotion regulation therapy relative to treatment as usual alone for adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury disorder: Randomized controlled trial.

Despite the wide-ranging negative consequences of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), there are few evidence-based treatments for NSSI among adolescents and little is known about what treatments that work best for whom. The objective of this study was to investigate moderators (i.e., for whom a specific treatment works) and predictors (i.e., factors associated with treatment outcome independent of treatment type) of treatment outcome in a randomized clinical trial comparing internet-delivered emotion regulation individual therapy for adolescents (IERITA) plus treatment as usual (TAU) to TAU alone. Adolescents (N=166; mean [SD] age=15.0 [1.2] years) with NSSI disorder were randomized to IERITA plus TAU (n=84) or TAU-only (n=82). Adolescent emotion regulation difficulties, suicidality, NSSI frequency, depressive symptoms, sleep difficulties, global functioning, and age, and parental invalidation, were measured pre-treatment and investigated as moderators and predictors of treatment outcome (i.e., NSSI frequency during treatment and for 4weeks post-treatment). A zero-inflated negative binomial generalized linear mixed effects regression model was used to estimate the rate of NSSI change as a function of both treatment condition and moderator/predictor. No significant moderators of treatment outcome were found. Parental invalidation was a significant predictor of treatment outcome regardless of treatment condition, such that high levels of parental invalidation pre-treatment were associated with a less favorable NSSI frequency. We did not find evidence of a differential treatment effect as a function of any of the examined client factors. Future research should investigate moderation in larger samples and with sufficient statistical power to detect moderation effects of smaller magnitude. Results suggest that parental invalidation may have a negative impact on treatment response and highlight the importance of further investigating parental invalidation in the context of NSSI treatments.

A Narrative Review of the Efficacy of Interventions for Emotional Dysregulation, and Underlying Bio-Psycho-Social Factors.

In this narrative, comprehensive, and updated review of the literature, we summarize evidence about the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing emotion dysregulation and improving emotion regulation in children, adolescents, and adults. After introducing emotion dysregulation and emotion regulation from a theoretical standpoint, we discuss the factors commonly associated with emotion regulation, including neurobiological and neuropsychological mechanisms, and the role of childhood adverse experiences and psycho-social factors in the onset of emotion dysregulation. We then present evidence about pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions aiming at improving emotion dysregulation and promoting emotion regulation across the lifespan. Although our review was not intended as a traditional systematic review, and the search was only restricted to systematic reviews and meta-analyses, we highlighted important implications and provided recommendations for clinical practice and future research in this field.

Investigating sex differences and age of onset in emotion regulation, executive functioning, and cannabis use in adolescents and young adults

BackgroundYoung adults have historically high levels of cannabis use at a time which coincides with emotional and cognitive development. Age of regular onset of cannabis use and sex at birth are hypothesized to influence the relationship between cannabis use and cognition. Here we investigated past 6-month cannabis use in relation to emotional and executive functioning. We further considered age of onset and sex in subgroup analyses.MethodYoung adults (N = 225; ages 16–22) completed a substance use interview and cognitive battery, including the Emotional Word-Emotional Face Stroop and NIH toolbox executive functioning tasks. Linear regressions examined relationships between past 6-month cannabis use episodes and performance. Subgroup analyses investigated whether age of onset or sex impacted relationships.ResultsAfter correcting for multiple comparisons, greater past 6-month cannabis use episodes were related to poorer Emotional Stroop Congruent Accuracy (p = .0004, FDR-p = .002) and List Sorting Working Memory (p = .02, FDR-p = .10) performance. Younger age of regular use onset marginally related to lower Emotional Stroop Congruent Accuracy performance (p = .03, FDR-p = .13). There were no cannabis use by sex interactions on cognition.ConclusionsConsistent with prior findings, results suggest small reductions in cannabis-related performance in processing speed during emotional Stroop and working memory tasks. Age of onset was modestly related to Stroop performance, but not sex. Longitudinal studies which detail patterns of cannabis and other substance use are needed to better assess brain-behavior relationships and other factors (e.g., age of onset of regular use, sex) which could influence cannabis-related impairments in cognitive functioning.

Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions on Recurrence of Symptoms in Adolescents with Bipolar Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review Study

Introduction: Considering the problems of emotion regulation and social skills in adolescents with bipolar spectrum disorders, one of the methods that can help these adolescents is psychosocial intervention. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of evidence-based psychosocial interventions on the recurrence of symptoms in adolescents with bipolar spectrum disorders. Methods: In the present study, keywords like psychosocial intervention, recurrence, bipolar disorder, bipolar and related disorders, and adolescence were selected based on the database of medical subject headings (MeSH) and searched on English databases such as Scopus, PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar in the period of 2008 (from March) to 2023 (until December). In this study, the PRISMA systematic review study reporting guide was used. Results: The results of the conducted research indicated the existence of problems in the sleep schedule, emotion regulation, social functioning, and problem-solving skills of these adolescents. Although drug interventions were the front line of mania treatment, psychosocial interventions using models such as psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral therapy focused on children and families, dialectical behavior therapy, and interpersonal as well as social rhythm therapy has helped the process of treatment stability and effectively prevent the symptoms of the disorder from returning. Conclusion: Early psychosocial treatment, along with pharmacotherapy intervention, can reduce the negative impact of symptoms and lead to improved short-term and long-term outcomes by equipping adolescents and their families with knowledge and skills to improve understanding and management of the disorder.