The normative development of emotion regulation strategy use in children and adolescents: a 2-year follow-up study

Prefrontal mechanisms of comorbidity from a transdiagnostic and ontogenic perspective

Accumulating behavioral and genetic research suggests that most forms of psychopathology share common genetic and neural vulnerabilities and are manifestations of a relatively few core underlying processes. These findings support the view that comorbidity mostly arises, not from true co-occurrence of distinct disorders, but from the behavioral expression of shared vulnerability processes across the life span. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the shared vulnerability mechanisms underlying the clinical phenomena of comorbidity from a transdiagnostic and ontogenic perspective. In adopting this perspective, we suggest complex transactions between neurobiologically rooted vulnerabilities inherent in PFC circuitry and environmental factors (e.g., parenting, peers, stress, and substance use) across development converge on three key PFC-mediated processes: executive functioning, emotion regulation, and reward processing. We propose that individual differences and impairments in these PFC-mediated functions provide intermediate mechanisms for transdiagnostic symptoms and underlie behavioral tendencies that evoke and interact with environmental risk factors to further potentiate vulnerability.

Cognitive emotion regulation strategies among Chinese adolescents having unprotected sex: a latent profile analysis

The association between cognitive emotion regulation strategy use and adolescents' risk behavior has long been emphasized. To identify coping profiles of Chinese adolescents having unprotected sex and to examine the characteristics and associations among those subgroups, 541 adolescents (age, 14-19 years) were screened from secondary schools in 10 Chinese cities. By latent profile analysis (LPA), the participants were identified into three latent profiles: the low reaction profile (LRP, N = 70), the medium reaction profile (MRP, N = 369), and the high reaction profile (HRP, N = 102) based on nine subscales of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). By one-way analysis of variance, chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regression analysis, we found that: the HRP has the highest level of using eight strategies and the lowest unprotected sex, meanwhile the LRP has the lowest level of using nine strategies and the highest unprotected sex among three groups (both p < .05). The low response coping was more prevalent among boys and younger students. It indicates that more active cognitive coping, using both adaptive and maladaptive strategies, may associate with less unprotected sex. The programs of enhancing active copying may be targeted in interventions aiming to reduce adolescent unprotected sex.

To make a molehill out of a mountain: An ERP-study on cognitive reappraisal of negative pictures in children with and without ADHD

OBJECTIVE

We investigated cognitive reappraisal in children with ADHD by means of the late positive potential (LPP) and self-report ratings. We expected diminished LPP modulation following reappraisal and lower self-report scores in children with ADHD.

METHODS

Eighteen children with ADHD and 24 typically developing (TD) children (8-12years) performed a cognitive reappraisal task, while EEG was recorded, and filled out a questionnaire on cognitive reappraisal.

RESULTS

Despite the lack of main reappraisal effects on LPP, the LPP was less positively modulated during reappraisal in ADHD compared to TD children.

CONCLUSIONS

Children with ADHD reported less use of reappraisal and could be distinguished from TD children based on LPP modulation. However the lack of main effects of reappraisal on LPP in both groups hinders clear interpretation of this finding and questions the suitability of LPP modulation within the current paradigm as a neural index of reappraisal in children 8-12years old, and warrants further research on the inter-individual variability and sensitivity of LPP modulation as a neural index of emotion regulation in children.

SIGNIFICANCE

This is the first study investigating the LPP during cognitive reappraisal in children with ADHD.

Development of the Tendency to Use Emotion Regulation Strategies and Their Relation to Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescents

The process model of emotion regulation posits that the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal is associated with positive outcomes (e.g., greater positive emotion) while the tendency to use expressive suppression is associated with adverse outcomes (e.g., greater negative emotion). Many studies using adult samples support this theory. However, the development of the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal/expressive suppression and how these tendencies relate to depressive symptoms in adolescents remain unclear. To address these questions, 639 Chinese adolescents aged 12–18 years old were asked to report their tendency to use cognitive reappraisal/expressive suppression as well as their depressive symptoms. General linear model multivariate analysis of variance showed a statistically significant age effect for the tendency to use emotion regulation strategies. Further analysis found that these adolescents reported using less expressive suppression as age increased, while there was no age effect for the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal. Moreover, linear regression analysis revealed that the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal in daily life negatively influenced depressive symptoms, while the tendency to use expressive suppression in daily life positively influenced depressive symptoms. These findings provide evidence that support the development of emotion regulation strategies in childhood and adolescence.

Loss of control eating in adolescents: Associations with adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies

OBJECTIVE

To examine differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies in adolescents with and without loss of control over eating (LOC).

METHOD

A community-based sample of 524 adolescents from 12 to 18years old (70.6% girls; Mage=15.08; SD=1.59) reported on LOC and the use of several maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation strategies.

RESULTS

Adolescents who experience LOC (28%) report more use of maladaptive strategies. With regard to adaptive strategies a significant group X gender interaction effect was found with girls who report LOC using less adaptive strategies. More specifically, based on the FEEL-KJ less problem-oriented action, distraction, humor enhancement, acceptance and cognitive problem solving were observed in girls who report LOC compared to those who do not report LOC. Boys with LOC report more use of adaptive strategies compared to those who do not report LOC.

DISCUSSION

LOC in adolescents is associated with increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies as well as a decreased use of adaptive strategies although the latter is only specific for girls. These results may inform prevention and treatment of emotion regulation problems in adolescents with LOC.

The Shame and Guilt Scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Adolescent (TOSCA-A): Psychometric Properties for Responses from Children, and Measurement Invariance Across Children and Adolescents

This study examined various psychometric properties of the items comprising the shame and guilt scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Adolescent (TOSCA-A) in a group children between 8 and 11 years of age. A total of 699 children (367 females and 332 males) completed these scales, and also measures of depression and empathy. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided support for an oblique two-factor model, with the originally proposed shame and guilt items comprising shame and guilt factors, respectively. There was good internal consistency reliability for the shame and guilt scales, with omega coefficient values of 0.77 and 0.81 for shame and guilt, respectively. Also, shame correlated with depression symptoms positively (0.34, p < 0.001) and had no relation with empathy (-0.07, ns). Guilt correlated with depression symptoms negatively (-0.28, p < 0.001), and with empathy positively (0.13. p < 0.05). Thus there was support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the shame and guilt factors. Multiple-group CFA comparing this group of children with a separate group of adolescents (320 females and 242 males), based on the chi-square difference test, supported full metric invariance, the intercept invariance of 17 of the 30 shame and guilt items, and higher latent mean scores among children for both shame and guilt. The non-equivalency for intercepts and mean scores were of small effect sizes. Comparisons based on the difference in root mean squared error of approximation values supported full measurement invariance and no group difference for latent mean scores. The findings in the current study support the use of the TOSCA-A in children and the valid comparison of scores between children and adolescents, thereby opening up the possibility of evaluating change in the TOSCA-A shame and guilt factors over these developmental age groups.

Homework Emotion Regulation Scale: Confirming the Factor Structure With High School Students

The current investigation studied psychometric properties of the Homework Emotion Regulation Scale (HERS) for math homework, with 915 tenth graders from China. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the presence of two separate yet related subscales for the HERS: Emotion Management and Cognitive Reappraisal. The latent factor means for both subscales were shown to be invariant across gender. Furthermore, both subscales were positively related to homework purposes and behaviors (effort and completion) in the theoretically expected directions. Meanwhile, math performance was positively related to emotion management, but not cognitive reappraisal.

Analysis of Emotion Regulation in Spanish Adolescents: Validation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire

Emotion regulation (ER) is a basic psychological process that has been broadly linked to psychosocial adjustment. Due to its relationship with psychosocial adjustment, a significant number of instruments have been developed to assess emotion regulation in a reliable and valid manner. Among these, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross and John, 2003) is one of the most widely used, having shown good psychometric properties with adult samples from different cultures. Studies of validation in children and adolescents are, however, scarce and have only been developed for the Australian and Portuguese populations. The aim of this study was to validate the Spanish version of the ERQ for use in adolescents and determine possible differences according to the gender and age of young people. The sample consisted of 2060 adolescents (52.1% boys). Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analysis (EFA and CFA), multi-group analysis and Two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were performed and the percentiles calculated. The results of the AFE and CFA corroborated the existence of two factors related to the emotion regulation strategies of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, showing acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Both factors also showed good criterion validity with personality traits, self-esteem, and social anxiety. Differences in cognitive reappraisal were found with regard to age, with younger students exhibiting the greatest mastery of this strategy. Gender differences were observed regarding the expressive suppression strategy, with boys being more likely to use this strategy than girls. A gender-age interaction effect was also observed, revealing that the use of the expressive suppression strategy did not vary by age in girls, and was more widely used by boys aged 12–14 years than those aged 15–16 years. However, we found evidence of measurement invariance across sex and age groups. The results suggest that the ERQ is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used to evaluate emotion regulation strategies in adolescents.

Neighborhood crime as a predictor of individual differences in emotional processing and regulation

Emerging research suggests that early exposure to environmental adversity has important implications for the development of brain regions associated with emotion regulation, yet little is known about how such adversity translates into observable differences in children's emotion-related behavior. The present study examines the relationship between geocoded neighborhood crime and urban pre-adolescents' emotional attention, appraisal, and response. Results indicate that living in a high-crime neighborhood is associated with greater selective attention toward negatively valenced emotional stimuli on a dot probe task, less biased appraisal of fear on a facial identification task, and lower rates of teacher-reported internalizing behaviors in the classroom. These findings suggest that children facing particularly high levels of environmental threat may develop different regulatory processes (e.g. greater use of emotional suppression) than their peers from low-crime neighborhoods in order to manage the unique stressors and social demands of their communities.

A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on ADHD and Comorbid Conditions: The Role of Emotion Regulation

Research investigating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and co-occurring disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, anxiety, and depression has surged in popularity; however, the developmental relations between ADHD and these comorbid conditions remain poorly understood. The current paper uses a developmental psychopathology perspective to examine conditions commonly comorbid with ADHD during late childhood through adolescence. First, we present evidence for ADHD and comorbid disorders. Next, we discuss emotion regulation and its associations with ADHD. The role of parenting behaviors in the development and maintenance of emotion regulation difficulties and comorbid disorders among children with ADHD is explored. An illustrative example of emotion regulation and parenting over the course of development is provided to demonstrate bidirectional relations among these constructs. We then present an integrated conceptual model of emotion regulation as a shared risk process that may lead to different comorbid conditions among children with ADHD. Implications and directions for future research are presented.

Neurocognitive bases of emotion regulation development in adolescence

Emotion regulation is the ability to recruit processes to influence emotion generation. In recent years there has been mounting interest in how emotions are regulated at behavioural and neural levels, as well as in the relevance of emotional dysregulation to psychopathology. During adolescence, brain regions involved in affect generation and regulation, including the limbic system and prefrontal cortex, undergo protracted structural and functional development. Adolescence is also a time of increasing vulnerability to internalising and externalising psychopathologies associated with poor emotion regulation, including depression, anxiety and antisocial behaviour. It is therefore of particular interest to understand how emotion regulation develops over this time, and how this relates to ongoing brain development. However, to date relatively little research has addressed these questions directly. This review will discuss existing research in these areas in both typical adolescence and in adolescent psychopathology, and will highlight opportunities for future research. In particular, it is important to consider the social context in which adolescent emotion regulation develops. It is possible that while adolescence may be a time of vulnerability to emotional dysregulation, scaffolding the development of emotion regulation during this time may be a fruitful preventative target for psychopathology.

Homework Emotion Regulation Scale

The goal of the present investigation is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Homework Emotion Regulation Scale (HERS) using 796 middle school students in China. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the existence of two distinct yet related subscales for the HERS: Emotion Management and Cognitive Reappraisal. Concerning the concurrent and predictive validity evidence of the HERS, the results indicated that, consistent with theoretical expectations, Emotion Management and Cognitive Reappraisal were positively associated with mastery and performance orientation, desirable homework behaviors (e.g., completion), learning strategies (e.g., organization), and math homework grade reported by teachers at the end of school semester.

Adolescents' reactions to participating in ethically sensitive research: a prospective self-report study

BACKGROUND

Conducting psychological research with adolescents is imperative for better understanding, prevention and treatment of mental illness. However there is concern that research addressing topics such as mental illness, substance use and suicidality has potential to distress participants, particularly youth.

METHOD

We administered a questionnaire to 1973 adolescents (13-18 years) at two time points, one year apart. Participants responded to items regarding nonsuicidal self-injury, psychological distress, history of physical and/or sexual abuse, adverse life events, alcohol use, suicidal behaviour, self-efficacy, and coping skills as well as two open-ended questions regarding whether they enjoyed participating in the research and whether participation worried or upset them.

RESULTS

Most youth (74 %) enjoyed participation and cited altruistic reasons and a greater self-awareness as reasons. Those reporting being upset by the questionnaire (15 %) reported poorer psychological functioning than their peers. Youth who were upset by their participation at baseline, but who reported enjoying the questionnaire at follow-up reported improved psychosocial functioning over time, while the reverse was true for those who initially enjoyed participation but later reported the questionnaire upset them.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest researchers acknowledge benefits for young people who participate in research, but also be mindful of the potential for distress among the most at risk youth.

Cognitive emotion regulation in children: Reappraisal of emotional faces modulates neural source activity in a frontoparietal network

Emotion regulation has an important role in child development and psychopathology. Reappraisal as cognitive regulation technique can be used effectively by children. Moreover, an ERP component known to reflect emotional processing called late positive potential (LPP) can be modulated by children using reappraisal and this modulation is also related to children's emotional adjustment. The present study seeks to elucidate the neural generators of such LPP effects. To this end, children aged 8-14 years reappraised emotional faces, while neural activity in an LPP time window was estimated using magnetoencephalography-based source localization. Additionally, neural activity was correlated with two indexes of emotional adjustment and age. Reappraisal reduced activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during down-regulation and enhanced activity in the right parietal cortex during up-regulation. Activity in the visual cortex decreased with increasing age, more adaptive emotion regulation and less anxiety. Results demonstrate that reappraisal changed activity within a frontoparietal network in children. Decreasing activity in the visual cortex with increasing age is suggested to reflect neural maturation. A similar decrease with adaptive emotion regulation and less anxiety implies that better emotional adjustment may be associated with an advance in neural maturation.

An fMRI Pilot Study of Cognitive Reappraisal in Children: Divergent Effects on Brain and Behavior

Although neuroimaging studies in adults demonstrate that cognitive reappraisal effectively down-regulates negative affect and results in increased prefrontal and decreased amygdala activity, very limited empirical data exist on the neural basis of cognitive reappraisal in children. This study aimed to pilot test a developmentally-appropriate guided cognitive reappraisal task in order to examine the effects of cognitive reappraisal on children's self-reports of affect and brain responses. Study 1 (N =19, 4-10 years-old) found that children successfully employed guided cognitive reappraisal to decrease subjective ratings of negative affect, supporting the effectiveness of the guided cognitive reappraisal task. Study 2 (N =15, ages 6-10 years-old) investigated the neural responses to guided cognitive reappraisal and found that the neural responses showed increased activation in the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the cognitive reappraisal condition compared to the no regulation condition. In addition, amygdala activity was positively correlated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation during cognitive reappraisal. Findings suggest that the neural networks supporting cognitive reappraisal in children involve similar brain regions but brain responses deviate from findings in adults. Our findings suggest that the neural networks supporting emotion regulation are still developing during middle childhood, and future research is necessary to delineate age-related development of the neural network involved in cognitive reappraisal.

Age-related changes in reappraisal of appetitive cravings during adolescence

The ability to regulate temptation and manage appetitive cravings is an important aspect of healthy adolescent development, but the neural systems underlying this process are understudied. In the present study, 60 healthy females evenly distributed from 10 to 23years of age used reappraisal to regulate the desire to consume personally-craved and not craved unhealthy foods. Reappraisal elicited activity in common self-regulation regions including the dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (specifically superior and inferior frontal gyri), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal lobule. Viewing personally-craved foods (versus not craved foods) elicited activity in regions including the ventral striatum, as well as more rostral and ventral anterior cingulate cortex extending into the orbitofrontal cortex. Age positively correlated with regulation-related activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus, and negatively correlated with reactivity-related activity in the right superior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. Age-adjusted BMI negatively correlated with regulation-related activity in the predominantly left lateralized frontal and parietal regions. These results suggest that the age-related changes seen in the reappraisal of negative emotion may not be as pronounced in the reappraisal of food craving. Therefore, reappraisal of food craving in particular may be an effective way to teach teenagers to manage cravings for other temptations encountered in adolescence, including alcohol, drugs, and unhealthy food.

Developmental Trends in Emotion Regulation: A Systematic Review with Implications for Community Mental Health

The ability to regulate how emotions are experienced is central to psychological well-being. Developmental changes in emotion regulation (ER) strategies are unclear in the literature. Thus, a systematic review of the research literature was conducted in order to (a) describe normative ER development across childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood, (b) describe the patterns and processes of specific ER strategies, and (c) identify and describe the influence of specific individual factors on ER. Fifty-five studies were identified that examined key ER strategies across development. The findings highlight the importance of facilitating adaptive ER strategies among children and youth.

Kin rejection: social signals, neural response and perceived distress during social exclusion

Across species, kin bond together to promote survival. We sought to understand the dyadic effect of exclusion by kin (as opposed to non-kin strangers) on brain activity of the mother and her child and their subjective distress. To this end, we probed mother-child relationships with a computerized ball-toss game Cyberball. When excluded by one another, rather than by a stranger, both mothers and children exhibited a significantly pronounced frontal P2. Moreover, upon kin rejection versus stranger rejection, both mothers and children showed incremented left frontal positive slow waves for rejection events. Children reported more distress upon exclusion than their own mothers. Similar to past work, relatively augmented negative frontal slow wave activity predicted greater self-reported ostracism distress. This effect, generalized to the P2, was limited to mother- or child-rejection by kin, with comparable magnitude of effect across kin identity (mothers vs. children). For both mothers and children, the frontal P2 peak was significantly pronounced for kin rejection versus stranger rejection. Taken together, our results document the rapid categorization of social signals as kin relevant and the specificity of early and late neural markers for predicting felt ostracism.

Emotion regulation from early adolescence to emerging adulthood and middle adulthood

Despite the growing research on emotion regulation, the empirical evidence for normative age-related emotion regulation patterns is rather divergent. From a life-span perspective, normative age changes in emotion regulation may be more salient applying the same methodological approach on a broad age range examining both growth and decline during development. In addition, emotion-specific developmental patterns might show differential developmental trends. The present study examined age differences in seven emotion regulation strategies from early adolescence (age 11) to middle adulthood (age 50) for the three emotions of sadness, fear, and anger. The results showed specific developmental changes in the use of emotion regulation strategies for each of the three emotions. In addition, results suggest age-specific increases and decreases in many emotion regulation strategies, with a general trend to increasing adaptive emotion regulation. Specifically, middle adolescence shows the smallest emotion regulation strategy repertoire. Gender differences appeared for most emotion regulation strategies. The findings suggest that the development of emotion regulation should be studied in an emotion-specific manner, as a perspective solely on general emotion regulation either under- or overestimates existing emotion-specific developmental changes.

Adverse life events and emotional and behavioural problems in adolescence: the role of coping and emotion regulation

We tested whether emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and coping (distraction, avoidance, support seeking and active coping) mediate or moderate the association between change in life stress (change in number of adverse life events) and change in adolescent problem behaviour. We used prospective and retrospective longitudinal data from a community sample. We measured change in problem behaviour as emotional and behavioural problems at Time 2 controlling for emotional and behavioural problems at Time 1, a year earlier. We measured change in life stress as life stress between Times 1 and 2, controlling for total previous life stress (before Time 1). Neither coping nor emotion regulation mediated the association between change in life stress and change in problem behaviour. Avoidance and expressive suppression were related to an increase in problem behaviour. Only cognitive reappraisal moderated the effect of increase in life stress on worsening of problem behaviour, suggesting that, as expected, cognitive reappraisal was a protective factor. In adolescents who reported they habitually reappraise, the association between change in life stress and change in emotional and behavioural problems was non-significant.

Inter-Parent Aggression as a Precursor to Disengagement Coping in Emerging Adulthood: The Buffering Role of Friendship Competence

Using multi-informant data drawn from a prospective study involving 184 youth, mother perpetrated and father perpetrated partner aggression during early adolescence (age 13) was examined as a predictor of five types of disengagement coping strategies in emerging adulthood (age 21): behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement, denial, substance use, and restraint. The ability to develop close friendships, or friendship competence, was examined as a moderator of these links. Results suggest that inter-parent aggression in early adolescence can predict reliance on disengagement coping eight years later, but that friendship competence can buffer against the reliance on disengagement coping. Moreover, close friendship competence was not directly related to partner aggression by mothers or fathers, suggesting that friendship competence develops along an independent developmental track, and thus may truly serve as a buffer for young adults with a history of exposure to inter-parent aggression.

Links between adolescent sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system functioning and interpersonal behavior over time

Extensive research has investigated links between individual differences in youths' autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning and psychological outcomes related to emotion regulation, yet little of this research has examined developmental change. The study tested whether individual differences in youths' tonic and stress-induced ANS functioning, assessed at age 14, and changes in ANS functioning from age 14 to 16 predicted corresponding changes in youths' behavioral warmth, as displayed during videotaped mother-child conflict interactions conducted at age 14 and 16. Increased behavioral warmth was predicted by increased baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), increased SCL stress reactivity, decreased RSA stress reactivity (i.e., greater vagal suppression), and decreased baseline SCL. There was also an interaction between RSA stress reactivity at age 14 and changes in maternal warmth from age 14 to 16, such that increased maternal warmth was only associated with increased adolescent warmth for adolescents with lower RSA stress reactivity at age 14.

The relation between emotion regulation strategies and physiological stress responses in middle childhood

The current study sought to examine whether children's spontaneous use of the emotion regulation strategies suppression and reappraisal during a psychosocial stress task was related to their cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to that task. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to a psychosocial stress task were assessed in 158 10-year-old children (83 girls). The children completed a self-report questionnaire measuring use of reappraisal and suppression during the task. Results showed overall increases in cortisol and alpha-amylase in response to the stressor, with higher cortisol reactivity in girls than in boys. With regard to emotion regulation, more use of suppression was related to lower cortisol reactivity in girls, and lower alpha-amylase reactivity and quicker alpha-amylase recovery in all children. The use of reappraisal was not related to the children's cortisol or alpha-amylase responses. The current study is the first to investigate the relation between the spontaneous use of reappraisal and suppression, and physiological stress responses to a psychosocial stressor in children. Our results indicate that reappraisal and suppression are used and can be measured even in 10-year-olds. At this age reappraisal appears ineffective at down-regulating physiological responses, while suppression was related to lower physiological responses. For cortisol reactivity there was a sex difference in the relation with suppression, indicating the importance of including sex as a moderator variable in research studying stress reactivity and its correlates in this age group.

Die Rolle der Emotionsdysregulation für die Genese von Angststörungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter

Zusammenfassung: Die Rolle der Emotionsregulation als ein bedeutsamer Einflussfaktor für psychische Störungen wird zunehmend diskutiert. Angststörungen zählen im Kindes- und Jugendalter zu den häufigsten psychischen Störungen, wobei der Einfluss der Emotionsregulation bislang nicht spezifiziert ist. Basierend auf den überwiegend querschnittlichen und nicht auf bestimmte Angststörungen bezogenen Befunden zum Zusammenhang von Emotionsdysregulation und Angststörungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter, wird ein Modell entwickelt, das entscheidende Dimensionen der Emotionsdysregulation wie etwa die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung oder kognitive Strategien spezifiziert und einen konkreten Wirkmechanismus über die Peer-Akzeptanz annimmt. Dieses Modell der Angststörungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter kann die Hypothesengenerierung zukünftiger Forschung gezielt leiten.

Social coping by masking? Parental support and peer victimization as mediators of the relationship between depressive symptoms and expressive suppression in adolescents

Expressive suppression is regarded as a generally ineffective emotion regulation strategy and appears to be associated with the development of depressive symptoms among adolescents. However, the mechanisms linking suppression to depressive symptoms are not well understood. The main aim of this study was to examine two potential mediators of the prospective relationship from depressive symptoms to expressive suppression among adolescents: parental support and peer victimization. Structural equation modelling was used to construct a three-wave cross-lagged model (n = 2,051 adolescents, 48.5 % female, at baseline; 1,465 with data at all three time points) with all possible longitudinal linkages. Depressive symptoms preceded decreases in perceived parental support 1 year later. Decreases in parental support mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and increases in expressive suppression over a 2-year period. Multi-group analyses show that the mediation model tested was significant for girls, but not for boys. No evidence for other mediating models was found. Although initial suppression preceded increases in depressive symptoms 1 year later, we did not find any evidence for the reversed link from suppression to depressive symptoms. Clear evidence for a reciprocal relationship between depressive symptoms and parental support was found. However, only limited and inconsistent support was found for a reciprocal relationship between depressive symptoms and peer victimization. Finally, although some evidence for a unidirectional relationship from parental support to increases in suppression was found, no significant prospective relationship was found between peer victimization and suppression. The implications of our clear results for parental support, and mostly lacking results for peer victimization, are discussed.

Inappropriate and excessive guilt: instrument validation and developmental differences in relation to depression

Inappropriate or excessive guilt is listed as a symptom of depression by the American Psychiatric Association (1994). Although many measures of guilt have been developed, definitional and operational problems exist, especially in the application of such measures in childhood and adolescence. To address these problems, the current study introduces the Inappropriate and Excessive Guilt Scale (IEGS), assesses its validity for use with children and adolescents, and tests its relation to depression across development. From a sample of 370 children between 7 and 16 years old, results provided (1) evidence that items designed to assess inappropriate and excessive guilt converged onto a single underlying factor, (2) support for the convergent, discriminant, and construct validity of the IEGS in a general youth population, and (3) evidence of incremental validity of the IEGS over-and-above other measures of guilt. Results also supported the hypothesis that inappropriate and excessive guilt as well as negative cognitive errors become less normative and more depressotypic with age.

Emotion regulation moderates relationships between body image concerns and psychological symptomatology

The study investigated the moderating role of emotion regulation (ER) in relationships between body image concerns and psychological symptomatology. A community sample of 533 boys and girls (11-20 years) completed measures assessing body image thoughts and feelings, domain-specific and general ER strategies, drive for thinness, and bulimic, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results indicated that ER moderated relationships between body image concerns and both bulimic and depressive symptoms, but not relationships between body image concerns and drive for thinness or anxiety symptoms. Adolescents who reported frequent body image concerns were more likely to have higher levels of bulimic symptoms if they tended to use avoidance and internal dysfunctional ER strategies. Furthermore, adolescents who reported frequent body image concerns were more likely to have higher levels of depressive symptoms if they used positive rational acceptance and internal functional strategies infrequently. Implications of the findings for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Central adiposity and the propensity for rehearsal in children

BACKGROUND

There is increasing evidence that continuous activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis and the central sympathetic nervous system contributes to the pathogenesis of central adiposity via increased psychological stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between central adiposity and the propensity for Chinese children to rehearse emotionally upsetting events, a dimension of psychological stress. Additionally, gender differences in this relationship were explored.

METHODS

Waist circumference, which is a marker of central adiposity and associated risks of developing cardiovascular disease, was measured and the propensity for rehearsal was assessed twice over two consecutive years in Hong Kong Chinese children (n = 194, aged 7-9 years), using a psychometric tool.

RESULTS

Children with waist circumference indicative of a risk of cardiovascular disease displayed higher rehearsal scores than children categorized as "not at risk", as did boys compared with girls. Our results suggest that central adiposity and the propensity for rehearsal of emotionally upsetting events may be linked in Chinese children.

CONCLUSION

Future prospective studies examining the direction of causality between central adiposity and rehearsal can potentially have valuable clinical implications.