Development of the Tendency to Use Emotion Regulation Strategies and Their Relation to Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

The process model of emotion regulation posits that the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal is associated with positive outcomes (e.g., greater positive emotion) while the tendency to use expressive suppression is associated with adverse outcomes (e.g., greater negative emotion). Many studies using adult samples support this theory. However, the development of the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal/expressive suppression and how these tendencies relate to depressive symptoms in adolescents remain unclear. To address these questions, 639 Chinese adolescents aged 12–18 years old were asked to report their tendency to use cognitive reappraisal/expressive suppression as well as their depressive symptoms. General linear model multivariate analysis of variance showed a statistically significant age effect for the tendency to use emotion regulation strategies. Further analysis found that these adolescents reported using less expressive suppression as age increased, while there was no age effect for the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal. Moreover, linear regression analysis revealed that the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal in daily life negatively influenced depressive symptoms, while the tendency to use expressive suppression in daily life positively influenced depressive symptoms. These findings provide evidence that support the development of emotion regulation strategies in childhood and adolescence.

Parental attachment and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents: The mediation effect of emotion regulation

“…Third, a negative relation was shown between cognitive reappraisal and depressive symptoms. This finding is in line with prior research (Sai et al, ), which suggested that increased use of cognitive reappraisal correlates to decreased depressive symptoms. Fourth, the result that expressive suppression positively related with depressive symptoms is in accordance with previous findings about adolescents (Brenning et al, ; Sai et al, ), which indicated that the more expressive suppression adolescents use, the more depressive symptoms they experience.…”

“…Participants rated the items on a 7‐point Likert scale (from “1 = strongly disagree” to “7 = strongly agree” ). A Chinese version of this questionnaire which has been validated by adults and teenagers was used (e.g., Sai et al, ). In this study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.71 for the cognitive reappraisal subscale and 0.66 for the expressive suppression subscale.…”

“…Although depressive symptoms in adolescence can be partly ascribed to transformations in cognitive, biological, psychic, and affective aspects, recent studies have shown that parental attachment and emotion regulation also play essential roles (Betts, Gullone, & Allen, ; Kullik & Petermann, ; Li & Han, ; Sai, Luo, Ward, & Sang, ).…”

“…Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression are two important emotion regulation strategies, which attract a lot of attention from researchers (Gross & John, ). Many studies have linked emotion regulation to depressive symptoms in adults and adolescents (Brenning, Soenens, Braet, & Bosmans, ; Kullik & Petermann, ; Sai et al, ; Soto, Perez, Kim, Lee, & Minnick, ). For instance, Sai et al () found that the tendency to use expressive suppression in everyday life increases depressive symptoms in adolescents, whereas the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal reduces depressive symptoms.…”

“…Many studies have linked emotion regulation to depressive symptoms in adults and adolescents (Brenning, Soenens, Braet, & Bosmans, ; Kullik & Petermann, ; Sai et al, ; Soto, Perez, Kim, Lee, & Minnick, ). For instance, Sai et al () found that the tendency to use expressive suppression in everyday life increases depressive symptoms in adolescents, whereas the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal reduces depressive symptoms. Another research showed that, compared with a control group, adolescents who scored higher on depressive symptoms were more likely to use expressive suppression and less likely to use cognitive reappraisal (Betts et al, ).…”