Children's Regulation Research Articles

A School-Based Mobile App Intervention for Enhancing Emotion Regulation in Children: Exploratory Trial.

BackgroundMost mental health disorders are first experienced in childhood. The rising rates of mental health difficulties in children highlight the need for innovative approaches to supporting children and preventing these difficulties. School-based digital interventions that address shared risk factors and symptoms, such as emotion dysregulation, present exciting opportunities to enhance mental health support for children on a larger scale.ObjectiveThis study investigates the use of a new app-based intervention designed to support children’s emotion regulation in schools. The aim is to optimize the usability, acceptability, and utility of the app and explore its scope for implementation with the target user in the school context.MethodsAs part of an interdisciplinary development framework, the app is being evaluated in a 3-month trial across 4 primary schools. In total, 144 children (aged 10-12 years) took part and accessed the intervention app in the classroom or at home. Outcomes regarding usability, acceptability, and implementation opportunities were assessed through digital user data, self-report questionnaires (132/144, 91.6%), and semistructured interviews with children (19/144, 13.2%) and teachers (6/8, 75%).ResultsThe app usage data showed that 30% (128/426) of the users were returning users. Self-report data indicated that 40.1% (53/132) of the children had not used the app, whereas 57.5% (76/132) had used it once or more. Of the children who had used the app, 67% (51/76) reported that the app was helpful. Interviews with children and teachers suggested positive experiences with the app and that it helped them to calm down and relax. Children reported that they perceived the app as acceptable, usable, and helpful. In terms of the intervention’s usability, most features functioned well; however, certain technical issues were reported, which may have led to reduced engagement levels. Teachers not only reported overall positive experiences but also discussed access difficulties and reported a lack of content as one of the main barriers to implementing the app. Having a web-based app significantly enhanced accessibility across devices and settings and provided teachers with more opportunities to use it. We identified the need for new, activating app features in addition to the existing, primarily relaxing ones. The findings indicated that it is possible to use and evaluate an app intervention in the school context and that the app could help enhance children’s emotion regulation. We discuss areas for improvement regarding the app, study design, and future implementation strategies.ConclusionsWe share important insights with regard to the development, implementation, and evaluation of a new app for supporting children’s emotion regulation in schools. Our results demonstrate that mental health apps represent a promising means to facilitate effective mental health service provision in and outside of the school context. Important lessons learned are shared to support other researchers and clinicians on similar journeys.

Opportunities for free play and young children's autonomic regulation.

Aspects of the social environment have been linked to the physiological mechanisms underlying behavioral self-regulation. Play, a behavior connected to regulatory behaviors such as delay of gratification and regulation of emotions, might be an aspect of social environments that is supportive of healthy physiological adaptation. We examined whether opportunities for social free play with peers, as reported by mothers, would predict children's autonomic regulation (via respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) in a sample of 78 five-year-old children. As a proxy for play experience generally, frequency of social free play in the past week predicted higher levels of RSA functioning across both baseline and stress conditions, but did not account for physiological rate of change between conditions. Thus, frequent social free play opportunities might be a general positive influence on children's autonomic regulation by supporting increased parasympathetic activation but not a significant influence on children's response to stress in the moment. Attention to the role of play in autonomic regulation is critical, as children's free play opportunities might be declining.

Atypical Arousal Regulation in Children With Autism but Not With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as Indicated by Pupillometric Measures of Locus Coeruleus Activity

BackgroundAtypical arousal regulation may explain slower mean reaction time (MRT) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder compared with typical development. The locus coeruleus–norepinephrine system (LC-NE) underlies arousal regulation and adapts its activity to the utility of a task. LC-NE tonic and phasic activity are indexed by baseline pupil size (BPS) and stimulus-evoked pupillary response (SEPR). MethodsThe study assessed pupillometry in ASD (n = 31, 3 female/28 male), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (n = 28, 3 female/25 male), and typically developing control subjects (n = 31, 16 female/15 male) during a visuospatial reaction-time task that manipulates arousal by conditions with low and high task utility. We estimated linear mixed models of BPS, SEPR, and MRT in a per-trial analysis to investigate arousal regulation of task performance. ResultsSlower MRT occurred in the ASD group compared with the typically developing control group during low-utility conditions while controlling for dimensional ASD and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. In low-utility conditions, BPS and SEPR were inversely related and both were associated with faster MRT. Increased ASD symptoms across groups were associated with higher BPS during low-utility conditions. Changes in BPS and SEPR between task-utility conditions were smaller in the ASD group. ConclusionsSlower visuospatial task performance in ASD is specific to low task utility. Arousal was associated with task performance and showed altered activity in ASD. Increased BPS during low-utility conditions suggested increased LC-NE tonic activity as an ASD symptom marker in children. Smaller changes in BPS and SEPR in ASD indicated attenuated LC-NE activity adaptation in response to high-utility conditions. Slower performance and atypical arousal regulation are probably associated with attenuated LC-NE activity adaptation.

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Therapy, Neurofeedback and Therapy Based on SPARK Perceptual-Motor Exercises on the Difficulty of Emotion Regulation in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Therapy, Neurofeedback and Therapy Based on SPARK Perceptual-Motor Exercises on the Difficulty of Emotion Regulation in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Assessing the Toxic Levels in Parenting Behavior and Coping Strategies Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Assessing the Toxic Levels in Parenting Behavior and Coping Strategies Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Effectiveness of Emotional Development Training on the Social Acceptance and Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Children

Effectiveness of Emotional Development Training on the Social Acceptance and Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Children

In-Vitro Assessment of Hapten-Induced Immune Regulation in Children with Asthenoneurotic Syndrome.

The study employed in vitro assay to examine the peculiarities of immune status in children with functional disorders of the autonomic nervous system diagnosticated as asthenoneurotic syndrome. In contrast to control children without asthenoneurotic syndrome, the examined group was characterized by significantly (p<0.05) elevated hapten-specific immunological sensitization (indicated by anti-Al IgG), induction of inflammatory reactions (IL-1), activation of apoptosis (CD3+CD95+ and р53) observed against the background inhibition of adaptive immune response (CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD16+56+, and CD19+), as well as hyperexpression of glutamic acid, NO, and VEGF combined with deficiency of serotonin. In cultured immunocompetent cells derived from children with hapten-modified immune status, the combined application of cytokine stimulator IL-1 with hapten sensitizer aluminum or with endocrine stimulator cortisol significantly (p<0.05) up-regulated expression of IL-8 and IL-10, but down-regulated production of IL-17 in a dose-dependent manner.

Developing Children's Regulation of Learning in Problem-Solving With a Serious Game

To support learning in problem solving in math, we created Festarola, a digital serious game where players are part of a team that organizes a party for a group of guests. The game's main objective is to develop problem-solving strategies in students and foster self- and shared regulated learning. The game is designed according to the four phases of problem solving, which are in accordance with the self-regulation phases, namely, understanding the problem (forethought), elaborating a plan (strategic planning), executing the plan (performance), and reflecting on the results (self-reflection). A user study was conducted with 363 primary school students to measure the impact of the game. Throughout several sessions, the children interacted with different sections of the game both individually and in a group. The positive results indicate that the game successfully stimulates and develops problem-solving strategies, as well as self- and shared regulation strategies.

Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents: A Practitioner's Guide

“Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents” is written as a “practitioner's guide” to facilitating emotion regulation in elementary school–age children to adolescents. The book, written and directed toward therapists, is divided into 2 sections; the first section provides an overview and theoretical background on emotions and emotion regulation, whereas the second part provides treatment strategies to develop skills in emotion awareness and emotion regulation. Although the book was not intended to serve as a stand-alone treatment program, it offers a set of modular treatment interventions to address emotion-related deficits in elementary school–age children and older. Although the modules are not designed to address specific DSM-5 diagnoses, the interventions may help mitigate the symptoms associated with DSM-5 conditions. Of note, the author states that the interventions discussed have been validated in the outpatient and school settings and may be generalizable to other settings. Although written and directed to therapists working with children, the content and strategies presented may be relevant for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) practitioners as well. The theoretical background presents an overview of “emotion science,” including information related to emotion, emotional competence, and related constructs including emotion awareness, emotion understanding, empathy, and emotion regulation, which form the foundation for the intervention modules presented later in the book. The author presents clear, simple, and understandable definitions of these concepts with concrete examples, which may be useful to present in a clinical encounter. For example, “emotion awareness” is defined as “knowing about one's own (or others') emotional experience,” with an example of how a child may feel multiple feelings simultaneously. The book also includes a chapter on “Emotion-Related Assessments” and presents several questionnaires, structured interviews, and observational protocols, which may be useful in clinical and research settings. The remaining chapters in the first section of the book present an overview of functional suggestions for implementing a treatment plan and strategies to foster parent involvement, engage challenging clients, and provide sensitive, culturally competent care. For practitioners who provide therapy to patients, the major use of this text is found in the second part of the book, which delineates 8 treatment modules to foster skills in emotion regulation (i.e., Emotion Awareness Skills, Emotion Understanding Skills, Empathy Skills, and 5 skills related to Emotion Regulation: Prevention, Mastery, Expression, Basic Cognitive, and Emotion-Specific Cognitive Skills). The ordering of the modules follows typical developmental progression, whereby earlier modules may be most applicable to younger children or those with less emotional maturity. The modules are designed to be stand-alone in nature, without dependence on preceding or subsequent modules; however, this leads to redundancy if the book is read continuously. Each of the modules provides information regarding intended use and objectives, as well as activities and games aimed at teaching and practicing the desired skill; there are often associated materials, such as handouts, provided. Overall strengths of the book include its organized and clearly delineated structure. In addition, the author draws on the evidence-based literature for the discussion of fundamental tenants. The book discusses pitfalls to be mindful of, as well as limitations of use. Additional limitations include the heavy reliance on the use of electronics during activities and redundancy related to duplicate information presented in the different treatment modules. The treatment modules also require significant preparation, making implementation within a DBP clinical setting more challenging. Although it might be difficult to enact all the activities as directed in the context of a busy DBP clinic, the treatment strategies could be implemented with families with the aid of a behavioral health specialist providing directed support and scaffolding. “Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents” is clearly written for the intended audience of psychology practitioners; however, the text may be of some use to medical DBP practitioners as well. The book provides useful language regarding how to describe and support the development of emotion recognition and regulation, which may be helpful for practitioners who are addressing emotion-related deficits in elementary school–age children and older.

An Analysis of Variables Affecting Young Children's Regulation of Negative Emotions

An Analysis of Variables Affecting Young Children's Regulation of Negative Emotions

Robot Enhanced Therapy for Autistic Children: An Ethical Analysis

The use of social robots has been proposed for the delivery of therapy to autistic children. The aim of such projects, of which the DREAM project is an example, is to replace therapists by robots, operating in sensory environments that enable them to detect and respond to feedback from the child. This article considers the ethical concerns of autonomy, community, transparency, identity, value, and empathy to evaluate the ethics of such deployment of robots. In doing so it provides a response to the Richardson et al. article in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine , Mar. 2018 [20]. This article concludes that deployment of robots to control the behavior of autistic children is ethically suspect and should be questioned. The use of robots with children should be evaluated on the basis of the purpose of and process by which such robots are deployed, rather than on the basis of the technology itself. Particularly important is the roboticist's empathy with the user of the robot, and gaining an understanding of the individual child. The paper suggests how an understanding of the autistic child might lead to sensitive deployment of a robot to help the child manage social environments through supporting the child's regulation of emotions.

Anxiety and Stress Alter Decision-Making Dynamics and Causal Amygdala-Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Circuits During Emotion Regulation in Children

BackgroundAnxiety and stress reactivity are risk factors for the development of affective disorders. However, the behavioral and neurocircuit mechanisms that potentiate maladaptive emotion regulation are poorly understood. Neuroimaging studies have implicated the amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in emotion regulation, but how anxiety and stress alter their context-specific causal circuit interactions is not known. Here, we use computational modeling to inform affective pathophysiology, etiology, and neurocircuit targets for early intervention. MethodsForty-five children (10–11 years of age; 25 boys) reappraised aversive stimuli during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Clinical measures of anxiety and stress were acquired for each child. Drift-diffusion modeling of behavioral data and causal circuit analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data, with a National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria approach, were used to characterize latent behavioral and neurocircuit decision-making dynamics driving emotion regulation. ResultsChildren successfully reappraised negative responses to aversive stimuli. Drift-diffusion modeling revealed that emotion regulation was characterized by increased initial bias toward positive reactivity during viewing of aversive stimuli and increased drift rate, which captured evidence accumulation during emotion evaluation. Crucially, anxiety and stress reactivity impaired latent behavioral dynamics associated with reappraisal and decision making. Anxiety and stress increased dynamic casual influences from the right amygdala to DLPFC. In contrast, DLPFC, but not amygdala, reactivity was correlated with evidence accumulation and decision making during emotion reappraisal. ConclusionsOur findings provide new insights into how anxiety and stress in children impact decision making and amygdala-DLPFC signaling during emotion regulation, and uncover latent behavioral and neurocircuit mechanisms of early risk for psychopathology.

The Role of Catecholamins in the Regulation of Children's Body Hemodynamic

The Role of Catecholamins in the Regulation of Children's Body Hemodynamic

Pengaruh Permainan Kooperatif dan Kecerdasan Interpersonal terhadap Regulasi Emosi Anak

THE EFFECT OF COOPERATIVE GAMES AND INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE ON CHILD EMOTIONAL REGULATION. Negative actions that occur at this time are much related to one's emotional regulation ability. For this reason, instilling the ability of motion regulations should be prepared early. Interpersonal intelligence children like building, relationships and maintaining social relationships will make it easier to know what kind of emotion regulation affecting children. For this reason, cooperative games have become a good game to do in increasing children's regulation. This study aims to reveal the extent to which the influence of cooperative games and interpersonal intelligence on the regulation of motions. Observational research data were tested using a normality test and a homogeneity test followed by a two-way variance test (ANAVA) and continued testing with tukey testing. The results showed that the sample data were normally distributed and homogeneous. The results of the analysis also showed the existence of the interaction of cooperative games and interpersonal intelligence on regulation based on the results of the analysis of variance F count = 62.52 &gt; F tab = 4.08 at the significant level = 0.05.

Characteristics of the Vegetative Status and Autonomic Regulation in Children with Different Severity of Bronchial Asthma

Characteristics of the Vegetative Status and Autonomic Regulation in Children with Different Severity of Bronchial Asthma

Effects of a CBT-I treatment for parents of infants and toddlers on children's regulation ability concerning sleeping and crying patterns

Effects of a CBT-I treatment for parents of infants and toddlers on children's regulation ability concerning sleeping and crying patterns

Lifestyle Modification for Enhancing Autonomic Cardiac Regulation in Children: The Role of Exercise.

Decreased physical activity (PA) is a global concern contributing to the rise in cardiometabolic diseases. One potential mechanism linking insufficient PA and poor health is dysregulated autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. This relationship is established in adults and PA recommendations, with specific exercise prescription guidelines, have been proposed to overcome this societal health burden. However, research on the benefits and underlying mechanisms of exercise on ANS activity in children <18 years old is limited. This review aimed to describe the optimal exercise “dose” and potential mechanisms of action that exercise may pose on enhancing child ANS activity, represented by heart rate variability (HRV). PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar were searched for articles examining the influence of exercise on child HRV. Various exercise duration and frequency combinations appear to improve HRV indices, primarily those representing parasympathetic influence. Furthermore, both aerobic and resistance training benefit HRV through potentially different mechanisms with intensity proposed to be important for exercise prescription. Findings indicate that exercise is a crucial lifestyle modification with protective and therapeutic effects on cardiometabolic health associated with improvements in child ANS activity. Exercise programming must consider the various components including mode, intensity and population characteristics to optimize ANS health.

The Role of Painting Activity as an Emotional Regulation in Children with Asperger Syndrome

Children with Asperger syndrome still need to be adjusted, in regulating their emotion, to their enjoyment in an activity that will be their emotional allocation. Art is able to improve their self-ability, to strengthen their self-confidence, and also to re-shape lack of knowledge about their own identity. This is because activity of art becomes a collection of inspiration, the aspect of imagination that is closely related to the aesthetic experience. This was a qualitative research as a study intended to understand the phenomenon of something that is experienced by the subject of research. For example: behaviour, perception, motivation, and action in holistic way and described in form of words and language, in a specific-natural context and by utilizing various methods. The research findings show that ability of emotional regulation is the ability of the subject in receiving and understanding a command, and then in minimizing tantrum, so that the subject is able to achieve a treatment therapy; including the subject's ability to identify and draw an object or other objects around them, to recognize some painting tools and to answer questions orally or in writing through the image media. The therapy can be packaged through art education based on painting activity which is the advantage of an area itself. Schools present learning programs that also support character education and the creative potential of the children, so that they can live independently later.

Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Self-Concept and Emotion Regulation in Children with Learning Disabilities

Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Self-Concept and Emotion Regulation in Children with Learning Disabilities

Early adversity and children's regulatory deficits: Does postadoption parenting facilitate recovery in postinstitutionalized children?

Children reared in orphanages typically experience the lack of stable, reliable caregivers and are at increased risk for deficits in regulatory abilities including difficulties in inhibitory control, attention, and emotion regulation. Although adoption results in a radical shift in caregiving quality, there remains variation in postadoption parenting, yet little research has examined postadoption parenting that may promote recovery in children experiencing early life adversity in the form of institutional care. Participants included 93 postinstitutionalized children adopted between 15 and 36 months of age and 52 nonadopted same-aged peers. Parenting was assessed four times during the first 2 years postadoption (at 2, 8, 16, and 24 months postadoption) and children's regulation was assessed at age 5 (M age = 61.68 months) and during kindergarten (M age = 71.55 months). Multiple parenting dimensions including sensitivity/responsiveness, structure/limit setting, and consistency in routines were examined. Both parental sensitivity and structure moderated the effect of preadoption adversity on children's emotion regulation while greater consistency was associated with better inhibitory control and fewer attention problems. Results support the notion that postadoption parenting during toddlerhood and the early preschool years promotes better regulation skills following early adversity.