Emotion regulation has emerged as a popular topic, but there is doubt about its viability as a scientific construct. This article identifies conceptual and methodological challenges in this area of study and describes exemplar studies that provide a substantive basis for inferring emotion regulation. On the basis of those studies, 4 methods are described that provide compelling evidence for emotion regulation: independent measurement of activated emotion and purported regulatory processes; analysis of temporal relations; measurement across contrasting conditions; and multiple, convergent measures. By offering this perspective, this article aims to engage thoughtful debate and critical analysis, with the goal of increasing methodological rigor and advancing an understanding of emotion regulation as a scientific construct.

Background-The ability to modulate emotional responses, or emotion regulation, is a key mechanism in the development of mood disruptions. Detection of a neural marker for emotion regulation thus has the potential to inform early detection and intervention for mood problems. One such neural marker may be the late positive potential (LPP), which is a scalp-recorded eventrelated potential reflecting facilitated attention to emotional stimuli. In adults, the LPP is reduced following use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal. No studies to date have examined the LPP in relation to cognitive emotion regulation in children, and whether the LPP is related to parent-report measures of emotion regulation and mood disruptions.

In adults, emotional (e.g., both unpleasant and pleasant) compared to neutral pictures elicit an increase in the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP); modulation of these ERP components are thought to reflect the facilitated processing of, and increased attention to, motivationally salient stimuli. To determine whether the EPN and LPP are sensitive to emotional content in children, high-density EEG was recorded from 18 children who were 5 to 8 years of age (mean age = 77 months, SD = 11 months) while they viewed developmentally appropriate pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System. Self-reported ratings of valence and arousal were also obtained. An EPN was not evident following emotional compared to neutral pictures; however, a positivity maximal at occipital-parietal recording sites was increased from 500 to 1,000 ms following pleasant pictures and from 500 to 1,500 ms following unpleasant pictures. Comparisons between the EPN and LPP observed in children and adults, and implications for developmental studies of emotion, are discussed.

Preschool-age children's ability to verbally generate strategies for regulating anger and sadness, and to recognize purported effective strategies for these emotions, were examined in relation to child factors (child age, temperament, and language ability) and maternal emotion socialization (supportiveness and structuring in response to child distress). The relation between strategy understanding and actual self-regulation was also examined. In a sample of 116 boys and girls, 4-year-olds recognized and generated strategies for anger more than 3-year-olds but 3-and 4-year-olds recognized and generated strategies similarly for sadness. Age effects for strategy generation were explained by expressive language skill. Maternal support in response to child distress was related to strategy recognition and generation but in different ways. Maternal structuring was related only to strategy generation for anger. Child strategy understanding of anger and sadness predicted different child behaviors when children had to deal with frustration alone. The findings suggest that emotion regulation strategy understanding can be assessed in young children and that such understanding has implications for self-regulatory behavior.

This study examined whether child temperamental approach reactivity moderated the association between 2 factors, parenting and child control capacities and child emotional self-regulation. Participants (N ϭ 113) were 3-and 4-year-olds (M ϭ 48 months, SD ϭ 5.78) and their mothers. Emotional self-regulation was measured as observed persistence and frustration and as maternal report of compliance. Parental approach, avoidance, control, and warmth were observed during play and a frustrating wait. Child approach reactivity and control capacities (inhibitory control and soothability) were assessed via maternal report. Results suggested that maternal approach during the wait was associated with persistence and frustration, whereas maternal warmth during the play was associated with compliance. These effects, and those of child control capacities, depended on the level of child approach. The implications of reactivity-control interactions and parent-child goodness-of-fit for emotional selfregulation are discussed.Keywords: emotional self-regulation, approach/avoidance, goodness-of-fit, reactivity and control process interactions During the preschool years, advances in several core capacities transform children's behavior and emotion. Of these, emotional self-regulation is one of the most crucial. It reflects the ability to initiate behavioral and emotional changes during emotionally charged situations in order to meet goals and manage arousal and predicts current and later adjustment (Denham, 1998;Kopp, 1982;Saarni, 1999;Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990). In early childhood, persistence during challenges, frustration tolerance, and compliance with caregiver demands are hallmarks of successful emotional self-regulation (Eisenberg et al., 2001;Kochanska, 1993).Findings from diverse disciplines in psychology suggest that emotional self-regulation emerges out of the interplay between two powerful sets of influences: reactivity, or arousability of physiological, emotional, and behavioral systems, and control processes, or modulation of reactivity to meet goals (Carver, Sutton, & Scheier, 2000;Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997;Davidson & Fox, 1989;Davidson et al., 2002;Fox, 1994;Posner & Rothbart, 2000). Among the most fundamental dimensions of reactivity are approach and avoidance in response to novel, unfamiliar, and challenging situations. Approach reflects sensitivity to rewards, emotional exuberance and excited anticipation for pleasurable activities, and behavioral approach to novelty and challenge. In contrast, avoidance reflects sensitivity to potential threats, fear and shyness, and behavioral withdrawal and inhibition in response to novelty and challenge (Carver, 2004;Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997;Kagan, 1999;Panksepp, 1998). Approach and avoidance likely represent separable but interacting systems rather than a continuum of reactivity, given evidence of distinct neurological and psychological underpinnings (e.g., Coan, Allen, & HarmonJones, 2001;Davidson, 2000;Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997;Fowles, 1994;Fox, 1994;Gray & McNaught...

The late positive potential (LPP) reflects increased attention to emotional versus neutral stimuli in adults. To date, very few studies have examined the LPP in children, and whether it can be used to measure patterns of emotional processing that are related to dispositional mood characteristics, such as temperamental fear and anxiety. To examine this question, 39 typically-developing 5–7 year olds (M age in months = 75.27, SD = 5.83) passively viewed complex emotional and neutral pictures taken from the International Affective Picture System. Maternal report of temperamental fear and anxiety was obtained and fearful behavior during an emotional challenge was observed. As documented in adults, LPP amplitudes to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli were larger than to neutral stimuli, although some gender differences emerged. Larger LPP amplitude differences between unpleasant and neutral stimuli were associated with greater observed fear. The LPP as a measure of individual differences in emotional processing is discussed.

Processing task-irrelevant emotional information may compromise attention performance, particularly among those showing elevated threat sensitivity. If threat-sensitive individuals are able to recruit attentional control to inhibit emotional processing, however, they may show few decrements in attention performance. To examine this hypothesis, attention performance was measured in three domains-alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Task-irrelevant fearful, sad, and happy faces were presented for 50 ms before each trial of the attention task to create a mildly competitive emotional context. Electroencephalographic recordings were made from 64 scalp electrodes to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) to the faces. Participants reporting high threat sensitivity showed enhanced ERPs thought to reflect emotional processing (P200) and attentional control (P100 and N200). Enhanced N200 following fearful faces was linked to sustained and even slightly improved executive attention performance (reduced conflict interference) among high threatsensitive individuals, but with decrements in executive attention among low threat-sensitive individuals. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive processing efficiency and the balance between threat sensitivity and attentional control in relation to executive attention performance. Results may have implications for understanding automatic and voluntary attentional biases related to anxiety. KeywordsCognitive control; Event-related brain potentials; Behavioral inhibition system; Emotion-attention interactions Preferential processing of negative emotional information may compromise attention performance (Cacioppo and Berntson, 1994;Hare et al., 2005;Simpson et al., 2000). This relatively automatic 'negativity bias' is adaptive because it facilitates rapid processing of threat, but may also deplete the resources available for more voluntary control of attention performance (Bishop et al., 2004;Desimone and Duncan, 1995;Kieras et al., 2000;Miller and Cohen, 2001).Individuals who show behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity and anxious mood are thought to show enhanced negativity biases, particularly towards threat and fear-related stimuli (Bishop et al., 2004;Carver and Scheier, 1998;Gray and McNaughton, 2000;Higgins et al., 1997;Leen-Feldner et al., 2004;Mathews and Mackintosh, 1998). Threat-sensitivity is more likely to interfere with attention when it exceeds an optimal level: for example, elevated anxiety has been shown to increase the negative impact of threat-related emotional stimuli on executive attention (Jazbec et al., 2005;Mathews and Mackintosh, 1998;Wood et al., 2001) such as conflict interference tasks (Fenske and Eastwood, 2003;Williams et al., 1996).BIS-sensitive individuals, however, vary in the degree to which they recruit cognitive control resources to inhibit attention towards emotional information (Gray and Burgess, 2004) and in the degree to which this attentional control supports attention performance (Derryberry and Reed, 2002). For ex...

Cognitive emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraising the emotional meaning of events, are linked to positive adjustment and are disrupted in individuals showing emotional distress, like anxiety. The late positive potential (LPP) is sensitive to reappraisal: LPP amplitudes are reduced when unpleasant pictures are reappraised in a positive light, suggesting regulation of negative emotion. However, only one study has examined reappraisal in children using the LPP. The present study examined whether directed reappraisals reduce the LPP in a group of 5- to 7-year-olds, and correlate with individual differences in fear and anxiety. EEG was recorded from 32 typically-developing children via 64 scalp electrodes during a directed reappraisal task. Mothers reported on child anxiety. Fearful behavior was observed. As predicted, LPP amplitudes were larger to unpleasant versus neutral pictures; counter to predictions, the LPP was not sensitive to reappraisal. The degree to which unpleasant versus neutral pictures elicited larger LPPs was correlated with greater anxiety and fear. Results suggest that reappraisal in young children is still developing, but that the LPP is sensitive to individual differences related to fear and anxiety. The utility of the LPP as a measure of cognitive emotion regulation and emotional processing biases in children is discussed.