The Assessment of Emotion Regulation: Improving Construct Validity in Research on Psychopathology in Youth—An Introduction to the Special Section

Program evaluation of a school-based mental health and wellness curriculum featuring yoga and mindfulness

BACKGROUND

Interest in the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions such as yoga in primary schools has grown. Evidence shows promise, as youth who engage in yoga to promote mindfulness show improved coping skills, increased socio-emotional competence and prosocial skills, academic performance, attention span, and ability to deal with stress.

OBJECTIVE

This study reports the results of a program evaluation of a universal health and wellness curriculum, Pure Power, designed to teach youth yoga techniques, mindfulness, and emotion regulation.

METHODS

A non-randomized comparison design examined outcomes among participants from schools that completed the intervention with highest fidelity of implementation (n = 461) and from students in matched comparison schools (n = 420). Standard measures of coping, emotion regulation and emotion dysregulation, spelling, and math achievement were collected.

RESULTS

Analyses suggest the youth in the intervention schools demonstrated relative improvement on measures of emotion regulation, spelling, and math.

CONCLUSIONS

Challenges in implementation in real-life settings are vital to identify. The data provide some real-world evidence for the effectiveness of a universal health and wellness curriculum on emotion regulation and positive academic outcomes. Training school staff to deliver the intervention may foster implementation. Future research should test the effectiveness of who delivers the intervention; for example, teacher-delivered groups vs. other wellness personnel.

What to Look for in Relationships: Development, inter-rater reliability, and initial validity estimates for a young child-caregiver relationship assessment

Introduction

Observational assessments are important for understanding a range of behaviors and emotions in the young child-caregiver relationship. This paper provides initial data on a multidimensional assessment for professionals who work with young children and their caregivers, the What to Look for in Relationships (WLR). The WLR was designed to assist providers in evaluating strengths and areas for improvement in five areas of young child-caregiver relationship dimensions. This paper reports on the development, interrater reliability, initial convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental utility of the scales.

Methods

Data were collected from caregiver-child dyads, who participated in a semi-structured observational caregiver-child interaction session as part of a clinic evaluation for relationship-based therapeutic services for young children in child protection. Recorded interactions were coded using the WLR scales with 146 interactions coded by at least two independent observers for interrater reliability analyses.

Results

The scales showed adequate internal consistency, good inter-rater reliability, strong convergent associations with a single dimension measure (i.e., the Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale; PIR-GAS) and discriminated those in the clinical range from those with adaptive functioning on the PIR-GAS.

Discussion

This study provides initial support for the usefulness of the WLR scales for assessing dimensions of caregiver-child relationships during early childhood that may be useful targets of intervention.

Providing a health-promotion behaviors model in elderly: Psychological capital, perceived social support, and attitudes toward death with mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies

Background and Aims

The aim of this study was to present a health-promotion behaviors model in the elderly based on psychological capital, social support, and attitudes toward death mediated with mediating role of emotional cognitive regulation strategies in the elderly in Ardabil.

Methods

The research method was correlational which was done by the path analysis method. The statistical population of the study consisted of all elderly people in Ardabil in 2020, from which 250 people were selected by convenient sampling method and were investigated with research tools including Health-Promotion Lifestyle Profile (1998), attitudes toward death profile (1994), Psychological Capitals (2007), social support (1988) and Cognitive Emotion Regulation (2001). Data were analyzed by Amos-24 software and using structural equation modeling.

Results

The results showed that psychological capital, social support, and attitude towards death directly affect health-promotion behaviors and also indirectly improve them through cognitive emotion regulation strategies. These results can have a significant impact on promoting health and improving the quality of life of the elderly population.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of the present study, it can be claimed that the proposed model for the health of the elderly has an acceptable fitness and this model can be used in developing educational programs and intervention techniques to improve the health of this group of people.

MM. The Relationships Between Early Maladaptive Schemas, Quality of Life and Self-care Behaviors in a Sample of Persons Living with HIV: The Potential Mediating Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies

Introduction:

People who are living with HIV often experience physical as well as psychological challenges. Therefore, the aim of this descriptive, correlational study was to explore the potential mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationships between early maladaptive schemas, quality of life, and self-care behavior in patients with HIV/AIDS.

Methods:

In the first half of 2017, patients with HIV/AIDS (N=240) were recruited from an HIV clinic in Tehran, Iran. A self-report questionnaire included the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQSF), Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), short form of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and a self-care behaviors questionnaire. The data analysis involved using advanced statistical techniques for structural equation modeling.

Results:

There were significant, inverse relationships between all five areas of early maladaptive schemas and positive cognitive emotional regulation strategies, self-care behaviors, and quality of life. Also, there were significant, positive relationships between all five areas of early maladaptive schemas and negative cognitive and emotional regulation strategies.

Conclusion:

The findings suggest that practical interventions to reduce maladaptive responses may result in healthier outcomes for persons living with HIV.

Multiple-Family Group Intervention for Incarcerated Male Adolescents Who Sexually Offend and Their Families: Change in Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Predicts Adaptive Change in Adolescent Behaviors

The multiple-family group intervention is an effective, yet affordable, 8-week treatment that is conducted in a juvenile correctional institution in Alabama with adolescents who sexually offend and their families. Data from 115 incarcerated male adolescents and their male and female caregivers collected at pre-, post-, and 1-year follow-up were used to determine that problem behaviors (internalizing, externalizing) decreased over pre- and posttest and the significant decreases in maladaptive emotion regulation predicted those changes. Adolescent-reported anxiety over abandonment and attachment dependence on parents increased significantly; these changes were predicted by decreases in maladaptive emotion regulation. Linear growth models were also fit over the 3 time points and indicate decreases in adolescent problem behavior and maladaptive emotion regulation.

Developmental differences in the linkages between anxiety control beliefs and posttraumatic stress in youth

BACKGROUND

Anxiety control beliefs have emerged as a trans-diagnostic risk factor for anxiety disorders and a potential mechanism of change in cognitive and behavioral therapies. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between anxiety control beliefs and anxiety disorder symptoms following exposure to hurricanes in youth and test a developmental hypothesis about those associations.

METHODS

A large school-based sample of (N = 1048) children and adolescents with a history of exposure to natural disaster were assessed with the short form of the Anxiety Control Questionnaire for Children (ACQ-C), symptom measures (PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder symptoms) and level of disaster exposure. Developmental differences in the association between ACQ-C scores and symptoms were tested, as well as the ACQ-C's ability to assess symptoms beyond level of exposure.

RESULTS

ACQ-C scores were associated with symptoms beyond level of exposure, but age moderated the strength of the association. Modeling the interaction suggested that the ACQ-C short had incremental validity beyond hurricane exposure in youth over 12 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings extend previous work to a novel population of youth and add to the developmental understanding of the role of anxiety control beliefs in anxiety regulation. Age differences in the linkages between anxiety control and symptoms is consistent with a developmental model where low perceived control exhibited by younger children may be less indicative of problems with anxiety but may instead be related to normal cognitive development.

Parental reactions to children's negative emotions: relationships with emotion regulation in children with an anxiety disorder

Research has demonstrated that parental reactions to children's emotions play a significant role in the development of children's emotion regulation (ER) and adjustment. This study compared parent reactions to children's negative emotions between families of anxious and non-anxious children (aged 7-12) and examined associations between parent reactions and children's ER. Results indicated that children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder had significantly greater difficulty regulating a range of negative emotions and were regarded as more emotionally negative and labile by their parents. Results also suggested that mothers of anxious children espoused less supportive parental emotional styles when responding to their children's negative emotions. Supportive and non-supportive parenting reactions to children's negative emotions related to children's emotion regulation skills, with father's non-supportive parenting showing a unique relationship to children's negativity/lability.

Mother-Child Affect and Emotion Socialization Processes Across the Late Preschool Period: Predictions of Emerging Behavior Problems

The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal relations between maternal negative affective behavior and child negative emotional expression in preschool age children with (n = 96) or without (n = 126) an early developmental risk, as well as the predictions of later behavior problems. Maternal negative affective behavior, child externalizing emotional expression, and child internalizing emotional expression were observed during a number of lab tasks at child ages 4 and 5, and child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems were assessed via maternal questionnaire at age 6. Path analyses using structural equation modeling were utilized to test the relations among the variables at ages 4, 5, and 6. A parent-driven model of emotion socialization emerged, wherein stronger relations were found among maternal negative affect and child externalizing emotions and behaviors than among maternal negative affect and child internalizing emotions and behaviors. Early child risk did not appear to alter the overall emotion socialization process, although higher levels of maternal and child negativity were observed for the children with a developmental risk. Results underscore the complexity of emotion socialization processes throughout the preschool period.

Developmental risk and young children's regulatory strategies: predicting behavior problems at age five

Children with early developmental delays are at heightened risk for behavior problems and comorbid psychopathology. This study examined the trajectories of regulatory capabilities and their potentially mediating role in the development of behavior problems for children with and without early developmental delays. A sample of 231 children comprised of 137 typically developing children and 94 children with developmental delays were examined during mildly frustrating laboratory tasks across the preschool period (ages 3-5). Results indicated that children with delays had greater use of maladaptive strategies (distraction, distress venting) and lower use of adaptive strategies (constructive coping) than typically developing children. For both groups, strategies had similar rates of growth across time; maladaptive strategies decreased and adaptive strategies increased. The intercept of strategy use, but not the slope, was found to mediate the relation between developmental risk and externalizing behaviors. Findings support that dysregulation, rather than the developmental risk, may be responsible for the high levels of comorbid psychopathology.