Emotion Regulation In Adolescents Research Articles

‘I just know I am upset, and thats it!’: The role of adolescents’ attachment, emotions, and relationship with caregivers in residential care

AbstractAccording to the attachment theory, the establishment of emotional bonds with significant figures is an important process in human development throughout life. The quality of the relationships between adolescents and their caregivers in residential care (RC) may act as a protective factor for internal reorganisation and the development of emotional regulation skills. The present study aims to analyse the effect of insecure attachment orientation and the quality of relationships developed with caregivers in RC settings and adolescent emotion regulation. It also aims to assess the mediating role of emotion regulation in the association between attachment and the quality of the relationship with caregivers. The sample consisted of 249 adolescents, aged between 12 and 18 years old, living in RC facilities in Porto (Portugal). The results suggest that perceived insecurity of attachment to significant figures has a negative effect on emotional regulation and on the quality of the relationship with caregivers. We also found a negative mediating effect of the differentiating emotions dimension on the association between attachment and the quality of the relationship with caregivers. It is relevant to highlight the importance of close affective relationships in developing adolescents' ability to regulate their emotions and particularly the impact of caregivers and their work in residential care.

Risky business: Considerations of emotion regulation and high-risk behaviors in anxious adolescents

A growing body of empirical literature connects anxiety symptoms and high-risk suicidal and self-harming behaviors in youth. Emotion regulation (ER) processes and deficits have been identified as important factors in the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of both youth anxiety and high-risk behaviors. The present study assessed the association between these variables using an acute, socio-demographically diverse clinical sample of youth presenting to an outpatient mental health clinic. Ninety-nine youth aged 12–20 years old completed measures of anxiety symptoms, ER difficulties, and lifetime history of high-risk behaviors including non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide attempts. Unadjusted analyses show that more severe anxiety symptoms were associated with more ER difficulties and history of risk behavior. Multivariate linear regression models considering age, sex, race/ethnicity, and risk history show that more severe anxiety symptoms remained significantly associated with more ER difficulties (p < 0.0001) and positive suicide attempt history (p < 0.01). Findings highlight the importance of integrating considerations of ER into the case conceptualization and treatment planning of high-risk, anxious youth to inform evidenced-based care with this population. The need for targeted, ongoing risk assessment with anxious youth to identify and mitigate risk is also demonstrated.

Emotion regulation in adolescents with major depression – Evidence from a combined EEG and eye-tracking study

BackgroundAdolescent major depression (MD) is characterized by deficits in emotion regulation (ER). Little is known about the neurophysiological correlates that are associated with these deficits. Moreover, the additional examination of visual attention during ER would allow a more in-depth understanding of ER deficits but has not yet been applied simultaneously. MethodsN = 33 adolescents with MD and n = 35 healthy controls (HCs) aged 12–18 years performed an ER task during which they either a) down-regulated their negative affective response to negative images via cognitive reappraisal or b) attended the images without changing their affective response. During the task, the Late Positive Potential (LPP), gaze fixations on emotional image aspects, and self-reported affective responses were collected simultaneously. ResultsCompared to HCs, adolescents with MD demonstrated reduced ER success based on self-report but did not differ in LPP amplitudes. Participants in both groups showed increased amplitudes in the middle LPP window when they reappraised negative pictures compared to when they attended them. Only in the HC group, increased LPP amplitudes during reappraisal were paralleled by more positive affective responses. LimitationThe applied stimuli were part of picture databases and might therefore have limited self-relevance. ConclusionsIncreased LPP amplitude during ER in both groups might be specific to adolescence and might suggest that ER at this age is challenging and requires a high amount of cognitive resources. These findings provide an important starting point for future interventional studies in youth MD.

Investigating the Moderating Role of Cognitive Flexibility in the Relationship Between Maltreatment and Emotion Regulation in Adolescence With Childhood Trauma

Background: Adolescence is a developmental period when adverse childhood experiences significantly impact the individual because of the changes in brain structure and functioning. This research aims to investigate the relationship between maltreatment and emotion regulation with the moderating role of cognitive flexibility in adolescence with childhood trauma. Methods: This was a descriptive-correlational study. The study population consisted of all adolescents who were referred to the psychological and psychiatric disorders clinics and medical clinics of Shiraz City, Iran, in the spring semester of 2021. The population included 250 individuals, of which 175 were selected as the sample of the research via the simple random sampling method according to the Morgan Table. The research tools were the childhood trauma questionnaire, the cognitive flexibility questionnaire, the psychological maltreatment scale, and the emotional regulation scale. After completing the questionnaires, the data were entered into the SPSS software, version 23, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The Pearson correlation test and the regression method were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed a significant negative correlation between maltreatment with emotion regulation (r=-0.531, P&lt;0.001). The results showed that the interaction of these 3 variables indicated that cognitive flexibility has a moderating role in the relationship between maltreatment and emotional regulation (β=-0.90, P&lt;0.01). Moreover, the results indicated that the relationship between maltreatment and emotion regulation in adolescence with high flexibility is higher than in individuals with low flexibility. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that cognitive flexibility can act as a moderator when considering the impact of trauma. The developed task could provide a novel way to assess this flexibility within an emotional context.

The Role of Emotion Regulation for General Self-Efficacy in Adolescents Assessed Through Both Neurophysiological and Self-Reported Measures.

Self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability and capacity to organize and execute actions required to achieve desired results, is associated with adolescent academic achievement and reduced risk for psychopathology. Adolescent emotion regulation represents an important component in the relationship between self-efficacy and developmental outcomes, but the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. It is unclear how emotion regulation strategies, which change with experience, and emotion regulation capacity, which is largely determined by genetics, contribute to the development of self-efficacy. The present study aims to explore the relationship between emotion regulation and self-efficacy in adolescents. We hypothesize that neurophysiological emotion regulation capacity moderates the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and self-efficacy. The present study applied a cross-sectional design. A sample of high-school students (N = 45, nfemale = 31, age = 17-18) provided answers on the General Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Vagal tone was used as an indicator for emotion regulation capacity. In the initial correlational analysis, reappraisal, but not expressive suppression nor vagal tone was associated with self-efficacy. Vagal tone was not associated with any self-report measures of emotion regulation or self-efficacy. Contrary to our hypothesis, vagal tone did not moderate the relationship between emotion regulation and self-efficacy. This is the first study assessing the relationship between neurophysiological indicators of emotion regulation and self-efficacy. Our results do not indicate that vagal tone moderates the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and general self-efficacy. Future studies should also assess the possible influence of metacognition and interoception on relationships.

Supportive parent-adolescent relationships as a foundation for adolescent emotion regulation and adjustment.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of supportive parent-adolescent relationships on adolescent adjustment (i.e., prosocial behavior, aggression, depressive symptoms) both directly and indirectly (via adolescent emotion regulation). Scholars have posited that adolescent emotion regulation (ER) may serve as an underlying mechanism in the link between parenting and adolescent adjustment. Supportive parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., openness, acceptance, emotional responsiveness) may be a key emotion socialization mechanism influencing adolescent ER. The sample included 206 adolescents (Age Range= 10-18years; 51% female; 70.4% ethnic minorities) and one primary caregiver (83.3% biological mothers, 38.7% single parents). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented to investigate the direct and indirect (via adolescent ER) effects of supportive parent-adolescent relationships on adolescent adjustment. We also explored whether these indirect and direct effects varied by adolescent sex and age. Results suggested direct and indirect (via adolescent ER) links between supportive parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent prosocial behavior, aggressive behavior, and depressive symptoms. Moreover, evidence indicated that many of these pathways were significant for boys but not girls. No evidence of youth age as a moderator was found. These findings highlight the important role supportive parent-adolescent relationships play in adolescent emotional and behavioral adjustment. Parenting programs could focus on facilitating a mutually responsive parent-adolescent relationship with a specific focus on the dynamic nature of emotion socialization during adolescence.

Does emotion regulation in adolescents in residential care mitigate the association between sexual victimization and poor psychological well-being?

BackgroundChildhood sexual abuse/assault has been linked to mental health problems that affect an individual's psychological well-being. This study explores the facets of emotional regulation as mediating mechanisms in the relationship between sexual victimization and psychological well-being in adolescents in residential care in Eastern Spain. Furthermore, it examines the role of sex assigned at birth and being unaccompanied asylum seeker children as possible moderators of the mediation model. MethodsA total of 346 adolescents (34.1% girls, 65.9% boys) aged between 11 and 19 years old completed a battery of instruments. Parallel multiple mediation paths were tested to determine whether sexual victimization is associated to psychological well-being across emotional regulation dimensions. Moderated mediation models with sex assigned at birth and the condition of unaccompanied asylum seeker children were tested too. ResultsThis study demonstrates that high sexual victimization is associated with poor psychological well-being in adolescents in residential care through the lack of emotional clarity, non-acceptance of emotional responses, and limited access to emotional regulation strategies (β = −0.6, 95%CI = −1.26, −0.09; β = −0.38, 95%CI = −0.9, 0.002; β = −0.39, 95%CI = −0.93, −0.03, respectively). In addition, the latter indirect effect pathway was significantly moderated by the condition of being unaccompanied asylum seeker children (β = 1.46, 95%CI = 0.28, 2.84). Sex assigned at birth was not shown to be a significant moderator. ConclusionsIdentifying which mechanisms of emotional regulation mediate the relationship between sexual victimization and psychological well-being in adolescents in residential care may contribute not only to reducing the psychological distress of these adolescents but also to improving the effectiveness and efficacy of the child welfare system.

Parents' and friends' socialization of positive emotions: Associations with adolescent emotion regulation

Adolescence carries new social and emotional experiences. Adolescents’ positive emotions have ramifications for adolescent emotion regulation, and are shaped through interactions with others (parents, friends). The literature on socialization of positive emotions and friend emotion socialization is limited. The present study examined parent and friend socialization of positive emotions in relation to adolescent emotion regulation. Thirty adolescents (13-18 years old, M = 14.40 years) participated with a parent and close friend. Parent and friend coaching and dismissal of adolescents’ positive emotions was coded from a discourse task. Adolescents’ emotion regulation was assessed through psychophysiological measurement and questionnaires. Parents coached adolescents’ positive emotions more than friends, with no differences in dismissal of adolescents’ positive emotions. Parents’ coaching of positive emotions related to adolescents’ poorer self-reported emotion regulation, but better physiological regulation. These findings highlight the importance of both parents and friends in adolescence and have clinical implications for supporting adolescent well-being.

Relationship of gambling disorder with traumatic life events and emotion regulation inadolescents and young adults.

Traumatic life events (TLE) and difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) can be considered risk factors for the development of gambling disorder in adolescents and young adults. The aim of the present study was to examine the differences in TLE, ER strategies, positive and negative affect, and gambling severity in a clinical sample of individuals undergoing treatment for gambling disorder (92.8% males; Mage = 24.83, SD = 3.80) and a healthy control group (52.4% males; Mage = 15.65, SD = 2.22). The relationship between the variables was assessed and the mediating role of ER in the relationship between TLE and gambling in the clinical sample was analysed. The results showed higher scores in gambling severity, positive and negative affect, ER strategies and TLE in the clinical sample. In addition, the severity of gambling was positively correlated with TLE, negative affect and with rumination. TLE were also correlated positively with negative and positive affect, rumination ER strategies, plan focus, positive reinterpretation, and catastrophizing. Finally, rumination mediated the relationship between TLE and gambling severity. These findings may have relevant implications for the prevention, understanding and treatment of gambling disorder.

Self-Regulation and Cognitive Emotion Regulation among Adolescents

The present correlational study aimed to examine the relationship between self-regulation and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in adolescents. A sample of 718 adolescents, comprising both boys and girls, from public and private educational institutes in Faisalabad, was conveniently selected for analysis. The participants completed the Adolescents Self-Regulation Inventory (ASRI) and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). A significant but negative relationship with one maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategy was identified. Additionally, it was found that long-term self-regulation exhibited a significant relationship with several adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, including refocus on planning, positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective. The Multiple Regression Analysis further revealed that only long-term self-regulation emerged as a significant predictor of other blame (a maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategy) and the aforementioned adaptive cognitive emotion regulation techniques. Notably, short-term self-regulation was identified as a significant negative predictor of positive reappraisal. Gender differences in self-regulation and cognitive emotion regulation strategies were observed through independent sample t-tests. This study contributes valuable insights to the existing literature and holds relevance for school psychologists. Importantly, the findings suggest that mindfulness-based interventions have the potential to enhance cognitive emotion regulation and self-regulation in adolescents, offering a promising avenue for helping them develop essential skills to regulate their emotions and behaviors.

Supplemental Material for Clarifying the Relation Between Mother and Adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: The Roles of Maternal and Adolescent Emotion Regulation and Maladaptive Maternal Emotion Socialization

Supplemental Material for Clarifying the Relation Between Mother and Adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: The Roles of Maternal and Adolescent Emotion Regulation and Maladaptive Maternal Emotion Socialization

An Analysis of Turn Transitions and Conversational Motifs in Parent-Adolescent Emotion-Focused Interactions

ABSTRACT Informed by the dynamic dyadic systems perspective on analyzing conversational data, this study uses sequence analysis to illuminate turn patterns that characterize parents’ emotion coaching/dismissing communication and adolescents’ emotion regulation/dysregulation in conversations about an emotionally evocative event. This study analyzed two conversations from 60 parent-adolescent dyads, 30 with harmful parental alcohol use and 30 without, where the adolescent described recent events that elicited positive and negative feelings. Using configural frequency analysis, we identified turn sequences that were over- and under-represented in the data, and we compared the prevalence of different turn sequences between families with harmful and non-harmful alcohol use. Then, using sequence analysis, we identified conversational motifs that reflect different patterns of parental communication and adolescent emotion regulation in conversation. Three conversational motifs emerged in conversations about negative emotions: (a) information sharing, (b) emotion regulating, and (c) reactive. Conversations about positive emotions revealed two conversational motifs: (a) emotion regulating and (b) information sharing. In addition, the conversational motifs were examined as predictors of adolescents’ post- interaction appraisals of their own emotion regulation and their parent’s responsiveness and control during the conversation. Findings point to the utility of sequence analysis for documenting patterns of interaction in parent-adolescent emotion-focused conversations.

Peer facilitation of emotion regulation in adolescence

Emotion regulation is particularly important for adolescents as they undergo normative developmental changes in affective systems and experience heightened risk for psychopathology. Despite a high need for emotion regulation during adolescence, commonly studied emotion regulation strategies like cognitive reappraisal are less beneficial for adolescents than adults because they rely on neural regions that are still developing during this period (i.e., lateral prefrontal cortex). However, adolescence is also marked by increased valuation of peer relationships and sensitivity to social information and cues. In the present review, we synthesize research examining emotion regulation and peer influence across development to suggest that sensitivity to peers during adolescence could be leveraged to improve emotion regulation for this population. We first discuss developmental trends related to emotion regulation at the level of behavior and brain in adolescents, using cognitive reappraisal as an exemplar emotion regulation strategy. Next, we discuss social influences on adolescent brain development, describing caregiver influence and increasing susceptibility to peer influence, to describe how adolescent sensitivity to social inputs represents both a window of vulnerability and opportunity. Finally, we conclude by describing the promise of social (i.e., peer-based) interventions for enhancing emotion regulation in adolescence.

Dialectical Behavioral Skills Group Therapy for Parents of Adolescents With Borderline Personality Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Research has indicated the effectiveness of Dialectical behavior therapy in adolescents (DBT-A) with severe emotion dysregulation and other symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The objective was to determine if DBT skills group with caregivers only could influence in potential mediators of DBT outcomes including rearing styles, emotion regulation and mindfulness skills, evaluated in both parents and adolescents. We implemented a 12-week group intervention based on DBT-A addressed to seven parents of adolescents with features of BPD. We tested differences after treatment using the non-parametric Wilcoxon test and calculated effect sizes. To understand individual changes, we reported clinical reliable change (CRC). The intervention was effective for improving rearing styles, emotion regulation and mindfulness skills in adolescents. Changes were stable after 6months. The intervention showed good levels of satisfaction reported by parents. A short DBT group-only intervention with caregivers could modify relevant processes related with features of BPD in adolescents. Early interventions with adolescents with symptoms of BPD could prevent the development of BPD influencing in potential mediation mechanisms.

Specific emotion and momentary emotion regulation in adolescence and early adulthood.

Emotion regulation (ER) is an important factor in resilience and overall well-being throughout development, and youth report increased variation in emotion and capacity for regulation across adolescence and early adulthood. Specific emotions may be associated with the use of different ER strategies, but much evidence exclusively collapses across negative and positive affect or may not reflect the daily experience of emotion and emotion regulation. The present study examined associations between the experience of unique positive and negative emotions and the use of common ER strategies in adolescence and early adulthood during daily life using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). The sample included 184 high school and college students (55% female, Mage = 17.88, SD = 1.25) who completed EMA surveys three times daily for 10 days (89% compliance). Participants reported on their recent emotional states and which of eight ER strategies they had used. Multilevel logistic regressions tested emotions as predictors of ER strategies, separately for each emotion-ER strategy combination across 96 total models, using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure to control the false discovery rate. Individuals had higher odds of engaging in maladaptive ER strategies, particularly suppression or rumination, when reporting most types of negative emotions-with the largest associations among unhappiness and anger. Conversely, positive emotions were generally linked to reported use of no ER strategies, though happiness and engagement were related to higher odds of problem-solving, while calm was related to less use of nearly all strategies. Specific emotion-strategy combinations may have implications for clinical targets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Corrigendum to “[Parental Emotion Socialization, Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescence: The Role of Family Cohesion

Corrigendum to “[Parental Emotion Socialization, Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescence: The Role of Family Cohesion

Parental Emotion Socialization, Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescence: The Role of Family Cohesion

This study explored the effect of parental emotion socialization behavior (ESB) on depressive symptoms with a focus on the mediating effect of emotion regulation and the moderating role of family cohesion. A total of 236 Chinese adolescents were surveyed and reported on parental ESB, family cohesion, emotion dysregulation, and depressive symptoms. The results indicated that parental ESB toward negative emotions was associated with adolescents’ depressive symptoms, as mediated by emotion dysregulation. Moreover, higher levels of family cohesion both enhanced the negative relationships between supportive ESB toward anger/sadness and emotion dysregulation and strengthened the positive relationship between non-supportive parental ESB toward sadness and emotion dysregulation. These findings clarify the interactive effects of multiple components of emotional parenting, reveal the double-edged effects of family cohesion in the association between parental ESB and depressive symptoms in adolescents, and highlight the importance of evaluating the family emotional context in research and clinical interventions.

Adolescents' Comfort in Disclosing to Caregivers Predicts Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Directly and Indirectly Through Difficulties in Emotion Regulation.

Despite adolescents' suicidal thoughts and behaviors being major health problems, sparse literature exists on the roles of adolescents' disclosing their feelings to caregivers in their suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This study examined whether adolescents' comfort in disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers predicts subsequent suicidal thoughts and behaviors and whether difficulties in emotion regulation mediate this association. High school students (N = 5,346 from 20 schools, 49% female-identified adolescents, and 35% 9th graders, 33% 10th graders, and 32% 11th graders) participated in the study for two years with four waves, each six months apart: fall semester in Year 1 (Wave 1), spring semester in Year 1 (Wave 2), fall semester in Year 2 (Wave 3), and spring semester in Year 2 (Wave 4). The degree to which adolescents felt comfortable disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers at Wave 1 predicted lower suicidal thoughts and behaviors at Wave 4 directly and indirectly via higher emotional clarity at Wave 2 and feeling more able to handle negative emotions at Wave 3. Moreover, when female-identified adolescents reported feeling unable to handle negative emotions at Wave 3, they reported engaging in more suicidal thoughts and behaviors at Wave 4 than male-identified adolescents. Therefore, enhancing adolescents' comfort in disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers and adolescent emotion regulation and taking a nuanced approach to support female-identified adolescents regarding their ability to handle negative emotions could prevent adolescents' suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

The Enhancing Role of Emotion Regulation in the Links between Early Positive Memories and Self-harm and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescence

Adolescence is a critical developmental period associated with an increased variety of interrelated risks and vulnerabilities. Previous studies have found associations between early memories of warmth and safeness, as well as emotion regulation, and self-harm and suicidal ideation in adolescence. Additionally, these early emotional memories have been found to be positively linked with some indicators of emotion regulation during this period. The present cross-sectional study extends prior research by exploring the moderating role of emotion regulation in the relationships between early memories of warmth and safeness, as well as each of the following risk-related outcomes in adolescence, in younger (i.e., 13–15) and older (i.e., 16–19) adolescents: suicidal ideation and self-harm and its associated functions (i.e., automatic and social reinforcement. Three self-report measures of these early emotional memories, emotion regulation, and risk-related outcomes, and a sample of 7918 Portuguese adolescents (53.3% females), with ages ranging from 13 to 19 (Mage = 15.5), were used. In both age groups, at high levels of emotion regulation, early memories of warmth and safeness had a greater (negative) effect on suicidal ideation and the automatic reinforcement function of self-harm, compared to at average and low levels of emotion regulation. These findings highlight the enhancing role of emotion regulation on the associations between early memories of warmth and safeness and some risk-related outcomes in adolescents, both younger and older, which reveals the relevance of targeting emotion regulation when preventing or tackling these outcomes, regardless of adolescents’ levels of early memories of warmth and safeness.

The development of emotion regulation in adolescence: What do we know and where to go next?

AbstractEmotion regulation is critical for adolescent functioning. Theories on the subject have evolved rapidly in recent years and have led to a more contextualized and dynamic conceptualization of emotion regulation processes. In this paper, based on the distinction between emotion regulation strategies and abilities, we propose future directions for research on emotion regulation development in adolescence. We first present evidence that emotional, cognitive, and social changes that occur in adolescence are central in emotion regulation development. We then review empirical findings on emotion regulation development by tying them to their conceptual foundations. We discuss their limitations and argue that building better conceptual clarity is essential to study emotion regulation. Because current knowledge on recent concepts that emerged in adult‐based models remains limited and contested in adolescence, we end this article by discussing new research perspectives to provide a better understanding of the topic. We stress the need for researchers in the field to adopt a more contextualized and person‐oriented approach, to combine different time scales and methods, and examine the predictors of emotion regulation as well as its outcomes.