Theoretical accounts emphasize the importance of context sensitivity in emotion regulation, yet research often neglects this. This study explored how adolescents' use of three emotion regulation strategies-cognitive reappraisal, distraction, and rumination-interacted with stressor intensity and perceived controllability to influence daily emotions. A total of 249 adolescents participated in a daily diary study (M = 12.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the current study was to replicate findings from prior work among adults showing that individuals with better interoceptive skills have more emotional awareness, and show better emotion regulation abilities, in a sample of adolescents and by relying on instructions that reduce the contamination of known confound variables. A total of 102 Belgian adolescents ( = 14.10 years, = .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Cognitive-affective models of depression show that negative and positive emotionality differentially confer risk for depression through maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies respectively. Yet, no research has examined the mechanisms through which these temperament traits shape individual differences in ER. The current study explored the mediating role of attentional breadth for emotional information in the distinct pathways from temperament to ER strategies in adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: This study examined the moderating role of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation in the relationship between general perceived stress and depressive symptoms during the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown in March-April 2020 in Belgium, while controlling for past depressive symptoms in 2016.
Methods: Participants were 110 adolescents (55% female; Mage = 16, SDage = 1.80) who filled out different questionnaires assessing maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation strategies (ERS), perceived stress, and depressive symptoms.
Background: Recent studies emphasize the role of emotion dysregulation as an underlying mechanism initiating and maintaining emotional eating in obesity. Since multidisciplinary obesity treatment (MOT) does not directly address emotion regulation (ER), the current study aimed to investigate the feasibility of an ER training in children and adolescents with obesity on top of MOT. Feasibility was evaluated multi-informant on relevant parameters e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepressive symptoms are associated with working memory impairments. Yet, comparative studies examining working memory across the developmental spectrum in depressed and non depressed cohorts are lacking. This study examined emotional working memory in 74 adolescents (mean age = 14; 21 with depressive symptoms) and 92 adults (mean age = 22; 36 with depressive symptoms).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDecreased emotional awareness contributes to the risk of internalizing disorders, such as depression. Although emotional awareness may be especially important during adolescence, a developmental period in which emotional arousal is high and the risk of depression rises dramatically, little research has examined the mechanisms linking emotional awareness to depression. Starting from affect regulation models, the current study proposes emotion regulation (ER) as a key underlying mechanism in the emotional awareness-depression relationship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The transition from childhood into adolescence can be considered as a critical developmental period. Moreover, adolescence is associated with a decreased use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies and an increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies increasing the risk of emotional problems. Targeting emotion regulation is therefore seen as an innovative prevention approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild Psychiatry Hum Dev
December 2018
It has been suggested that altered processing of emotion during cognitive control plays an important role in the etiology of depressive symptoms. The current study investigates the influence of emotional stimuli on working memory (WM) in adolescents with dysphoric symptomatology (DS). Twenty-five adolescents with DS and 40 adolescents with no dysphoric symptomatology (NDS) completed a memory-guided eye movement task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent cognitive models suggest that the ability to control emotional information in working memory (WM) may be implicated in the etiology and maintenance of depression. However, few studies have examined the effects of processing relevant and irrelevant emotional stimuli on WM performance in depressed adolescents. In the current study, depressed adolescents (n = 27) and healthy adolescents (n = 49) completed two versions of an emotional n-back task: a low WM load (0-back) task and a high WM load (2-back) task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study examined the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System (BIS/BAS) scales parent-report in children and adolescents ( = 1,444, 58% girls) across age (Group 1, 2-5 years; Group 2, 6-9 years; Group 3, 10-13 years; Group 4, 14-18 years old) and gender. The results consistently underscored a four-factor structure, resembling the original factor structure, with one BIS-factor and three BAS-factors. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis showed full measurement invariance across gender as well as across Group 1 and 2, and Group 2 and 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent research suggests that impaired emotion regulation (ER) may play an important role in the development of youth psychopathology. However, little research has explored the effects of ER strategies on affect in early adolescents. In Study 1 (n = 76), we examined if early adolescents are able to use distraction and whether the effects of this strategy are similar to talking to one's mother.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry
December 2017
Background And Objectives: Previous studies have suggested that internal cognitive control impairments may play an important role in the development of depression. Despite a growing body of research in adults, the ability to shift internal attention between mental representations in working memory has received little attention in younger populations. This study investigated internal shifting capacity between emotional and non-emotional information in dysphoric and non-dysphoric adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Child Adolesc Psychol
February 2020
From a clinical developmental perspective, temperament has been shown to confer vulnerability to depression among youth. High negative emotionality (NE), low positive emotionality (PE), and low effortful control (EC) have repeatedly been independently associated with youth depressive symptoms. However, far less research has examined the joint contributions of NE, PE, and EC on such symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPast research results suggest that executive functioning (EF) impairment represents an important vulnerability factor in depression. Little research, however, has examined mechanisms underlying this association. The current study investigates the associations between EF impairment, emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and depressive symptoms in a sample of 579 adolescents (320 females, mean age = 12.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Child Adolesc Psychol
May 2019
Cognitive theories emphasize the importance of attentional biases in the development and maintenance of depression. Noteworthy, recent studies indicate that depression-related biases only occur in later stages of attentional processing. This is consistent with the idea that attention is a multicomponent process, consisting of at least two mechanisms: selection and inhibition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
October 2015
Research on depression showed patterns of maladaptive thinking reflecting themes of negative self-evaluation, a pessimistic view on the world and hopelessness regarding the future, the so-called cognitive triad. However, it is still unclear if these cognitive aspects are also a clear marker of depressive symptoms in children. Therefore in the current study we will investigate to what extent the cognitive triad contributes to the prediction of depressive symptoms.
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