Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Late Childhood Frontal EEG Asymmetry, Executive Function, and Adolescent Cognitive Reappraisal

Abstract

Cognitive reappraisal is adaptive for decreasing symptoms of depression; however, a gap in the research is understanding the childhood processes that contribute to cognitive reappraisal in adolescence. This study examined executive function and frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry during late childhood as predictors of adolescent cognitive reappraisal and depressive symptoms. Data were from 123 participants in late childhood (age 10) and adolescence (age 14.5). A moderated mediation model was fit to the data to examine frontal EEG asymmetry as a moderator in the relation between late childhood inhibitory control and adolescent cognitive reappraisal as well as adolescent cognitive reappraisal and adolescent depressive symptoms. Results indicated lower inhibitory control was associated with lower cognitive reappraisal when children had right frontal EEG asymmetry. Lower cognitive reappraisal in turn was associated with higher depressive symptoms for children with right frontal EEG asymmetry. Working memory and cognitive flexibility were also examined but were not significant indicators. Results suggest the potential for targeting inhibitory control and cognitive reappraisal to diminish depressive symptoms particularly among adolescents with right frontal EEG asymmetry. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10802-022-00983-5.

Introduction: Cognition and emotion as codeveloping processes.

“…From my earliest publication on the topic with Christy Wolfe (a commentary in a special issue of Child Development; Bell & Wolfe, 2004) to a journal special issue (Infant Behavior and Development; Wolfe & Bell, 2023), my research collaborators and I have been enmeshed in this general topic for over 2 decades. We have published multiple empirical articles on the interplay between cognition and emotion (e.g., Meza-Cervera et al, 2023;Wolfe & Bell, 2007) and have been invited to write commentaries and chapters in other volumes (e.g., Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007;Bell et al, 2019).Emotion-cognition in early development was a burgeoning topic in the field when Susan Calkins and I proposed our original volume to American Psychological Association in 2006. At that point, there had been a great deal of conceptual work suggesting the integration of emotion and cognition (e.g., Blair, 2002;Posner & Rothbart, 2000) but little empirical data.…”

“…From my earliest publication on the topic with Christy Wolfe (a commentary in a special issue of Child Development; Bell & Wolfe, 2004) to a journal special issue (Infant Behavior and Development; Wolfe & Bell, 2023), my research collaborators and I have been enmeshed in this general topic for over 2 decades. We have published multiple empirical articles on the interplay between cognition and emotion (e.g., Meza-Cervera et al, 2023;Wolfe & Bell, 2007) and have been invited to write commentaries and chapters in other volumes (e.g., Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007;Bell et al, 2019).…”

The Influence of Social Exclusion on High School Students’ Depression: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…school students helps alleviate depression and that cognitive reappraisal can be used as a protective factor against vulnerability to depression. 52,54 We can resist depression by improving cognitive reappraisal and reducing expression suppression. 55…”