Better understanding difficulties in emotion regulation may help integrate a conceptualization for the etiology of a number of emotional disorders, such as depression or anxiety, and personality disorders. However, one deficit in extant literature has been in identifying a widely accepted measure in assessing problems with emotion regulation. A number of emotion regulation measures are currently used in the literature. Because each measure addresses regulation from a different perspective, the definition of emotion regulation remains unclear. Gratz and Roemer (2004) provide an integrated conceptualization for emotion regulation that accounts for the many ways in which emotions may affect the expression of psychological disorders. Gratz and Roemer constructed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to assess various areas in which one might experiences problems with emotion regulation. The DERS is a 36-item scale that has six factors related to emotion regulation: Awareness, Non-acceptance, Clarity, Impulsivity, Strategies, and Goals. The purpose of this study was to perform a confirmatory factor analysis on the DERS, and to examine its predictive validity for disorders that are associated with difficulties in emotion regulation. The data for this study was collected from part of a larger study on emotion regulation. Participants consisted of undergraduates at a rural mid-western university who completed a survey packet including the DERS, the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESDS), and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL). It hypothesized that a six factor solution would be found, validating the findings of Gratz and Roemer (2004). It was also expected that total DERS scores will be associated with CESDS and PCL scores, suggesting that participants who scored higher on these measures of depression and PTSD would also report difficulties with emotion regulation. The DERS factors were expected to be related to corresponding factors on the TMMS. Results indicated that although a 6-factor solution was supported, several modifications were needed to the original model in order to achieve acceptable goodness of fit index values. Additionally, a number of other suggestions for changes to the measure, including re-wording several of the items or the possible removal of the Awareness factor, are discussed.

Parent education programs were introduced nearly 30 years ago with a primary focus on teaching parents strategies to identify and reduce incidences of noncompliance in their children, and have been the single most successful treatment approach for reducing problem behavior. However, few parent education programs address emotion regulation and its role in children's development despite the fact that research has consistently demonstrated that children who are unable to successfully regulate emotions are more likely to develop behavioral problems. Specifically, most programs fail to address the concepts of effortful control and negative affectivity, two important components of child temperament, and their effects on children's behavior. Research has suggested that children who are emotionally regulated develop greater social competence, resulting in better, more positive, relationships. Thus, parents who teach their children to express and regulate their emotions in socially appropriate ways promote the development of prosocial behaviors in their children. In response, the goal of this study was to examine whether adding an emotion component aimed at teaching parents successful strategies for socializing children's emotions would affect overall parenting and children's emotion regulation above and beyond a traditional behavioral model. Twenty-five parents participated in a three-week parent education program. Parents learned strategies for managing their children's misbehavior. Moreover, parents learned about temperament, how these dispositional traits affect children's behavior, and successful strategies for aiding children in emotion management. At each session, parents completed measures designed to assess their children's temperament and behavior. Additionally, parents completed measures regarding their parenting practices and styles as well as feelings of parental efficacy. Repeated measures ANOVAs were run to determine whether changes in children's temperament or parenting emerged over time. Hierarchical multiple regressions were also computed to determine the effects of parents' practices, styles and efficacy on change in children's levels of effortful control and negative affectivity. Results suggest that parents' choice of disciplinary strategies affects children's ability to regulate their emotions, and that participation in the emotion module positively affected overall parenting and children's emotion regulation.

The current investigation examines the relationship between parenting, emotion regulation, and symptoms of psychopathology in maltreating and non-maltreating parent-child dyads. The participants in this study were 114 children (67 maltreated and 57 non-maltreated) from ages 1 to 4. Child affect and effortful control along with parent affect were observed during a parentchild interaction procedure. Symptoms of psychopathology were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. The maltreated children in this study exhibited more irritability/anger, affect lability, and internalizing symptomatology, along with less positive affect than their non-maltreated peers. These data also suggest that parental affect is related to internalizing symptomatology; but this relationship is stronger for the maltreated group. Contrary to expectations emotion regulation did not fully mediate the relationship between parenting and psychopathology. Clusters of maladaptive affect, "angry" and "labile", emerged in the maltreated group along with a more "resilient" group characterized by positive affect, positive parental affect, and lower levels of psychopathology.

Two experiments compared the effects of two cognitive responses (i.e., rumination and cognitive reappraisal) individuals may adopt when confronted with a threat to self-regard. In Study 1, participants received negative feedback about their social skills and then rated the credibility of the source of the criticism. In Study 2, participants received negative feedback and then were given the opportunity to enhance the self on an unrelated task. Compared to reappraising the negative feedback, ruminating about the feedback led to poorer evaluations of the source of negative feedback and increased self-enhancement, respectively. These findings suggest that, compared to rumination, cognitive reappraisal helps to minimize defensive responses to ego threat.

Two experiments compared the effects of two cognitive responses (i.e., rumination and cognitive reappraisal) individuals may adopt when confronted with a threat to self-regard. In Study 1, participants received negative feedback about their social skills and then rated the credibility of the source of the criticism. In Study 2, participants received negative feedback and then were given the opportunity to enhance the self on an unrelated task. Compared to reappraising the negative feedback, ruminating about the feedback led to poorer evaluations of the source of negative feedback and increased self-enhancement, respectively. These findings suggest that, compared to rumination, cognitive reappraisal helps to minimize defensive responses to ego threat.

Cognitive emotion regulation strategies can be used to counter the negative effects of life stress. In neuroimaging paradigms, many different types of reappraisal strategies have been used to promote cognitive coping with impersonal, emotion-evoking stimuli, but limited research has been done utilizing specific reappraisal strategies with real-life events. Big picture reappraisal is a specific emotion regulation strategy that offers a way of managing distress aiming to promote acceptance and cognitive coping. Big picture reappraisal instructions (experimental condition) were compared to distraction and rumination instructions (control conditions) resulting in activation in areas associated with cognitive control (orbital frontal cortex, superior parietal lobe, cerebellum lobule VI). Mood ratings collected after each of several condition prompts were significantly more positive in the distraction compared to the big picture reappraisal condition during the first third of the induction, but as the task progressed the effectiveness of distraction declined considerably. There were no significant condition differences in mood during the second and third segments of the induction. / text

Introduction: Emotion regulation, the process of changing one’s emotion is necessary for efficiency when performing cognitive tasks, and is often measured using a Stroop task that provides conflict between emotional and factual information. Researchers have found that listening to music increases performance on cognitive tasks, and we hypothesize that listening to music samples that evoke different arousal and valence levels will affect participants’ emotion regulation skills. Method: 38 Georgia State University undergraduates listened to three-minute excerpts of film scores known to evoke a particular mood and arousal state while completing an emotional-Stroop task. Results: We performed a repeated measures ANOVA and found a significant difference of music type and an interaction between music type and word context. Discussion: These results provide evidence that music evokes different arousal and valence states, which have a distinct effect on emotion regulation skills.

Older adults improve in emotional well-being, and this may be a product of changes in motivation to regulate emotions or emotion regulation effectiveness. However, there are cognitive changes in old age that could make regulation harder in some contexts. The current set of studies sought to determine whether there were age-related improvements or deficits in ability to use distraction in two contexts. The first study examined use of distraction in a recovery context and found no age differences in emotional recovery when 1) using spontaneous self-distraction, 2) intentionally self-distracting, and 3) being distracted by another task. There was, however, evidence that the distracting task was the most effective way to recover from the negative induction. There was also some evidence that cognitive changes with age made it more difficult for older adults to limit negative thoughts in certain conditions. The second study contrasted use of distraction, positive reappraisal, and detached reappraisal by looking at success in terms of emotion regulation and impact on a subsequent cognitive task and later memory for the emotional stimuli. No age differences were found in emotion regulation success in this study either, but interesting differences in consequences of the three regulation strategies did emerge.

Positive affect, which has been broken down into four lower-level facets (i.e., joviality, attentiveness, self-assurance, serenity), has demonstrated numerous ties to physical and mental health. The experience of positive affect can be regulated by emotion regulation strategies. However, few studies have assessed their relationship, and no studies have examined the relationship using the lower level facets of positive affect. The link between positive affect and emotion regulation may be of particular importance for individuals at increased risk for bipolar disorder, as both are disrupted in individuals with the condition. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between positive affect and emotion regulation while also exploring whether risk for bipolar disorder moderated their relationship. Undergraduates (N = 155) completed measures of emotion regulation, affect, and bipolar disorder risk at baseline. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), participants completed surveys 3 times a day for 7 days. Hierarchical linear models were estimated and revealed significant effects between certain baseline emotion regulation tendencies (experiential avoidance/ psychological inflexibility, rumination, behavioral social avoidance) and daily positive affect facets as well as between daily emotion regulation use (i.e., reappraisal, acceptance, reflection, savoring, mindfulness social support, suppression, rumination, procrastination) and daily positive affect facets. Bipolar disorder risk was not found to moderate the relationship. Findings support the use of strategies emphasized in evidence-based treatments and highlight the importance of daily practice of emotion regulation skills.

No description available.