No description available.

The ability to regulate emotions is essential for human well-being. Among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients, the capability to control emotions is impaired. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is a recommended treatment for patients diagnosed with PTSD. Usually, cognitive reappraisal is considered the primary regulation technique in cognitive behavioral therapy treatment. The strategy aims to decrease negative or increase positive emotions by changing the interpretation of an event to alter the meaning of the situation. The aim of this thesis was to conduct a systematic review of the neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal among post-traumatic stress disorder patients. Through a systematic search, screening, and selection process out of initial 545 articles, six studies were included for data extraction and discussion. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants utilized the strategy of cognitive reappraisal during an emotion regulation task in the scanner. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the neural activity of the participants in the included studies was compared during a cognitive reappraisal task. The result revealed a tendency of decreased activity in prefrontal cortices in PTSD patients during reappraisal compared to controls, indicating deficient recruitment of prefrontal cortices in PTSD patients during reappraisal.

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience emotional instability and have a high suicide rate. Treatment for BPD includes psychotherapy and adaptive emotion regulation strategies, which include cognitive reappraisal. Previous systematic reviews indicate that abnormal brain patterns may cause emotional instability in BPD individuals. To further explore this, this review collected articles that examined neural activity using fMRI during cognitive reappraisal in subjects with BPD and healthy controls. We identified four relevant articles through a search of Web of Science and PubMed. The articles included conflicting results in both participant groups regarding increased or decreased activity during cognitive reappraisal applying either reinterpretation or distancing. The affected brain regions were the following: lateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, left middle temporal gyrus, and superior temporal gyri. Three of the articles reported consistent results of activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during downregulation, two in all participants and one only in the healthy control group. However, no significant group differences were found in this region during cognitive reappraisal. The discussion includes limitations regarding the comparability of the included studies, such as the method of eliciting negative affect, the use of written or verbal instructions, and the cognitive reappraisal strategy applied. Further research is necessary to better understand the involvement of distinct brain regions in cognitive reappraisal and BPD, as well as to establish more standardized research methods. These efforts can offer comprehensive insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive reappraisal in individuals with BPD.

College students with ADHD tend to struggle with their academic performance and are less likely to graduate college than their neurotypical peers. Emotion dysregulation, a common symptom of ADHD, can cause significant functional impairment throughout life. Acute exercise improves ADHD symptom severity, yet medication is the first line of treatment. Less is understood about the effectiveness of habitual exercise or ADHD medication on emotion dysregulation and quality of life (QoL). Therefore, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the relationship between habitual exercise, emotion regulation, and QoL in college students with ADHD, and the possible moderating effects of ADHD medication. A sample of 53 participants completed a Qualtrics survey that included items on recent exercise, emotion regulation strategies, medication status, and QoL. A subset of participants (n=6) also completed a semi-structured interview. A moderated mediation model of linear regression was used to examine the relationships between habitual exercise, emotion regulation, and QoL, and explore the moderating effects of ADHD medication. A 6-step thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview data. Results found a positive main effect of habitual exercise on expression suppression, (p=0.007). Greater use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with greater QoL (p=0.02). There was a stronger association between habitual exercise and cognitive reappraisal in participants taking ADHD medication (p=0.006), than those who were not taking ADHD medication (p=0.942). Medication status did not show a moderating effect. Qualitative analysis identified primary themes of both ADHD-related exercise benefits (increased focus, reduced hyperactivity, improved emotion regulation), and non-ADHD related exercise benefits (feelings of accomplishment, elevated mood, coping mechanism, improved health and fitness). Although further research is necessary, habitual exercise in conjunction with ADHD medication may be an effective treatment for emotion dysregulation associated with ADHD.

No description available.

Social anxiety and depression are commonly comorbid, and together they result in greater functional impairment and a poorer prognosis than when either condition occurs alone. Although the onset of social anxiety precedes the development of depression in the large majority of comorbid cases, little research has directly examined factors that contribute to the occurrence of depression in individuals with social anxiety. Theoretical models implicate emotion and emotion regulation in the development and maintenance of internalizing disorders. Emotion regulation research has predominantly focused on expressive suppression (ES), the suppression of outward emotion, and cognitive reappraisal (CR), the modification of cognitions to manage emotion. Social anxiety and depression are both characterized by maladaptive patterns of emotion regulation, exhibiting an overreliance on ES and an underutilization of CR. The present study investigated the role of emotion regulation, specifically ES and CR, in the relationship between social anxiety and depression over time. Our primary aim was to evaluate ES and CR, separately, as mediators of the relationship between social anxiety and depression. Our secondary aim was to evaluate additional mediating and/or moderating effects of related variables (i.e., relationship quality, positive and negative affect, and reward sensitivity). Our final exploratory aim was to evaluate whether emotion regulation (i.e., ES and CR) for positive emotions differs from emotion regulation for negative emotions in the relationships proposed by our primary and secondary aims. Undergraduate participants (N=137) completed an in-person laboratory session (i.e., baseline), followed by a 14-day daily diary period. During the daily diary period, participants reported on their daily experiences of social anxiety, depressed mood, emotion, emotion regulation, and relationship quality. Approximately two weeks after the end of the daily diary period (i.e., four weeks after baseline), participants completed a final in-person laboratory session (i.e., endpoint). Multilevel modeling was used to analyze observation-level data over the two-week diary period, and bootstrapping methods were used for person-level analyses over the full four-week study period. Daily diary analyses failed to support the hypothesized mediation models. Average social anxiety across the daily diary period was positively associated with daily depressed mood, but observation-level social anxiety was not. Exploratory analyses revealed affect-specific effects of emotion regulation, such that higher perceived success in ES (i.e., daily ES self-efficacy) for positive affect and less frequent use of CR (i.e., daily CR frequency) for negative affect significantly predicted higher next-day depressed mood. Person-level analyses across the four-week study period yielded some support for our hypotheses, in that ES frequency and positive affect acted as sequential mediators of the relationship between social anxiety and depression. Higher social anxiety predicted more frequent ES, which predicted lower positive affect, which then predicted higher depression. However, the mediation model was no longer significant after controlling for baseline depression. Our results highlight the role of emotion dysregulation in predicting depression and provide initial support for the mediating effects of ES and CR in the relationship between social anxiety and depression. These findings also emphasize the importance of investigating affect-specific effects, with particular attention paid to emotion regulation for positive affect and its role in the co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression. Future research would benefit from longitudinal studies across longer time periods and examining these relationships within a clinical sample. / Psychology

In adolescence, the use of cognitive reappraisal (CR) is adaptive for general emotion regulation and for decreasing symptoms of depression. Still, with all of the literature indicating the usefulness of CR, minimal research attempts to understand the childhood processes contributing to CR in adolescence. My dissertation study examined individual factors of executive function and frontal EEG asymmetry during late childhood, and environmental factors of parenting in adolescence, as predictors of adolescent CR and depressive symptoms. Data were from 123 participants in late childhood (age 10) and adolescence (age 14.5). During the late childhood visit, executive function and frontal EEG asymmetry were assessed. The adolescent visit included questionnaires for maternal CR, maternal supportive and unsupportive responses to adolescent's negative emotions, adolescent CR and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that maternal unsupportive reactions moderated the association between maternal CR and adolescent CR, such that higher unsupportive reactions were associated with higher adolescent CR when mothers reported higher CR. Higher CR in turn was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Regarding individual factors, frontal EEG asymmetry moderated the association between inhibitory control during late childhood and adolescent CR, such that better inhibitory control during late childhood was associated with higher CR when children had right frontal asymmetry. Higher CR was associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescence. The results suggest the potential for targeting inhibitory control and parenting as two mechanisms for improving CR among adolescents to diminish depressive symptoms. / Doctor of Philosophy / Changing the way one thinks of an emotional event is considered highly adaptive, this strategy is referred to as cognitive reappraisal (CR). 123 participants during late childhood and adolescence and their mothers participated in this study. During the late childhood visit, children completed executive function tasks and electrical brain activity was collected during rest. For the adolescent visit, mothers completed questionnaires regarding their emotion regulation strategies and parenting styles, adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their own emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that when mothers indicated more CR and higher unsupportive reactions this was associated with higher adolescent CR. Higher CR in turn was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Late childhood electrical brain activity and a child's ability to inhibit prepotent responses (inhibitory control) were associated with higher adolescent CR. Higher CR was associated with lower depressive symptoms in adolescence. The results suggest the potential for targeting inhibitory control and parenting as two mechanisms for improving CR among adolescents to diminish depressive symptoms.

Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (2016) recommendation to limit screen exposure in the early years, toddlers’ screen use exceeds these guidelines (Rideout & Robb, 2020). Given the significant role of parental media use in children’s exposure to screens (Domoff et al., 2020; Lauricella et al., 2015), it is important to understand the factors that contribute to parental screen use. Digital technologies have been posited as tools for emotion regulation (Wadley et al., 2020), suggesting that parental emotion regulation may serve as a significant determinant of parental media use. Prior studies have shown the association between emotion regulation strategies and different types of screen use, including non-interactive and interactive media (Extremera et al., 2019; Rozgonjuk & Elhai, 2021). It has also been suggested that the role of emotion regulations strategies may differ by personality traits (Gross & John, 2003). However, limited research to date examined these associations with the focus on parents of toddlers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the association between parents’ emotion regulation strategies on their screen use and the moderating role of personality traits in this association. This study used secondary data collected from an online survey of 296 mothers of children between 18 to 36 months in the United States. Linear regression models were fitted to examine the association between emotion regulation strategies and parental screen use, with a focus on two specific regulation strategies and interactive and non-interactive screen use. They were founded that cognitive reappraisal was not related either non-interactive and interactive screen uses and that expressive suppression was only associated with non-interactive screen use. Cognitive reappraisal was related to agreeableness and expressive suppression was related to extraversion. No moderator roles of agreeableness on the association between cognitive reappraisal and both types of screen use and extraversion on the association between expressive suppression and both types of screen use were found. Future research is needed to test the possible biases resulting from the self-report technique, understand the causation between emotion regulation strategies and screen use, and include the context of screen media for deeper understanding. / Toddlers use screens, like smartphones and tablets, more than recommended by American Academy of Pediatrics (2016), and understanding why may help to support children’s healthy developmental outcomes. How much parents use screens is related to how much children use screens (Lauricella et al., 2015), making it valuable to examine parents' screen use. Screens may help individuals learn to control or regulate their emotions (Wadley et al., 2020), suggesting that parental emotion regulation may be one reason that parents use screens. Prior studies have shown that emotion regulation is related to different types of screen use, including non-interactive (e.g., video viewing) and interactive media (e.g., playing video games; Extremera et al., 2019; Rozgonjuk & Elhai, 2021). I examined two strategies of emotion regulation: cognitive reappraisal, which is reinterpreting the situation that cause emotions, and expressive suppression, which is hiding and inhibiting emotions. It has also been suggested that the role of emotion regulations strategies may differ by personality traits (Gross & John, 2003). However, limited research to date examined these associations with the focus on parents of toddlers. The current study examined how maternal cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression related to both non-interactive and interactive screen use and moderating role of personality traits on these relations. Mothers of toddlers (N = 296; M_age = 31.8 years) completed surveys for this study. Findings showed that cognitive reappraisal was not related to either non-interactive or interactive screen use, although it was related to agreeableness and that expressive suppression was related to non-interactive screen use and extraversion. Associations between these two emotion regulation strategies and both types of screen use were not moderated by personality characteristics. Further explanation is needed to examine the context of screen media and the causal links between emotion regulation strategies and screen use.

The present research examines the possibility that curiosity can serve as a relatively low-effort approach to regulating negative emotion. We situate curiosity in the context of emotion regulation, conceptualizing curiosity as a motivating mindset oriented towards informational goals, in contrast to cognitive reappraisal which we operationalize as a motivational state oriented towards emotional goals. We then propose that the curious pursuit of informational goals implicates cognitive flexibility and psychological distance as regulatory mechanism that benefit emotional outcomes during information-seeking while being less effortful than the explicit pursuit of an emotional goal. To test this possibility, we compare curiosity to cognitive reappraisal across five empirical studies. In study 1 (N = 54, 47 women) and study 2 (N = 70, 64 women), we establish initial evidence that curiosity can serve as a low-effort alternative to cognitive reappraisal. In study 3 (N = 65, 51 women), we find evidence that curiosity may be preferred relative to reappraisal. In study 4 (N = 67, 29 women), we find initial evidence that psychological distance may underlie some of curiosity’s emotional benefits, but also that reappraisal may be more effective than curiosity at increased levels of affective intensity. In study 5 (N = 38, 30 women), we observe that, in a cognitively demanding context, reappraisal was surprisingly reported to be less effortful than curiosity. We then conclude by evaluating our findings to update our hypotheses and make suggestions for future research. / Psychology

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka sambandet mellan trygga anknytningsrelationer och emotionsreglering under adolescensen. Totalt deltog 82 ungdomar i studien, 47 kvinnor och 35 män mellan 17 och 20 år, genom att fylla i självskattningsformulären Viktiga personer i mitt liv (VIPIL) och Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Resultaten visar att det finns olika starka samband mellan anknytningsrelationerna och emotionsregleringsstrategierna kognitiv omvärdering och undantryckande. Anknytningsrelationerna är en svag prediktor för användandet av kognitiv omvärdering och förklarar cirka 5 procent av variansen, medan de predicerar cirka 41 procent av användandet av undantryckande. En jämförelse mellan könen visar att unga män använder kognitiv omvärdering oftare än unga kvinnor. Vänskapsrelationerna framstår som särskilt betydelsefulla för emotionsreglering under adolescensen, vilket kan bero på att ungdomar söker sig till vänner i större utsträckning när de frigör sig från föräldrarna och blir mer självständiga. Därför är det viktigt att vidare undersöka hur avsaknad av trygga vänskapsrelationer påverkar ungdomar i stort inklusive deras emotionsreglering. / The aim of this study was to examine the links between secure attachment relationships and emotion regulation during adolescence. In total 82 adolescents, 47 women and 35 men, between the ages of 17 and 20 years participated in the study by completing Swedish versions of the self-assessment forms Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The results show that the relationships between attachment and the emotion regulation strategies cognitive reappraisal and suppression, differ in strength. The attachment relationships are a weak predictor of cognitive reappraisal and explains approximately 5 percent of the variance, while they predict approximately 41 percent of the variance of suppression. A comparison between women and men showed that young men use cognitive reappraisal more frequently than young women. The relationships with friends appears to be particularly significant to emotion regulation during adolescence, which may be due to that adolescents rely on their friends to greater extent when they separate themselves from their parents and become more independent. Therefore, it is important to further examine how the absence of secure friendships affect young people in general including their emotion regulation.