Studying Children's Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation Strategies from the Process Model of Emotion Regulation

Abstract

The present research relied on the Process Model of Emotion Regulation (PMER, Gross, 2007) to investigate children's abilities to regulate their emotions and to assess how distinct emotion regulation strategies are used by children of different ages. In Study 1, one-hundred and eighty parents of children aged between 3-and 8-years old reported about a situation where their child had been able to change what s/he was feeling. In Study 2 one-hundred and twenty-six 3-to 8-year-old children answered two questions about how they regulate their own emotions. Results from both studies showed age differences in children's reported emotion regulation abilities and the strategies they used. As expected, strategies such as 'situation selection', 'situation modification', and 'cognitive change' were used more frequently by 5-6 and 7-8-year-olds, whereas 'attention deployment' was mainly used by 3-4-year-olds. No age differences were found for 'response modulation'. The present research contributes to the existing body of literature on emotion regulation by adding more information about the developmental patterns for each specific emotion regulation strategy.

The effects of a ‘pretend play‐based training’ designed to promote the development of emotion comprehension, emotion regulation, and prosocial behaviour in 5‐ to 6‐year‐old Swiss children

“…First, a scenario is read to the child in French: ‘Imagine you cannot do something you really want to such as play with a toy, meet your best friend or go to a place you really like’. This scenario describes the situations that are most frequently mentioned by parents in Study 1 by López‐Pérez et al (2017). After reading the scenario, the children must evaluate on a scale from 1 (= ‘very bad’) to 5 (= ‘very good’) how they would feel if they experienced this situation.…”

“…These different constructs also affect children's academic motivation and performance. In addition, emotion regulation in young children is increasingly seen as a fundamental skill essential to multiple aspects of their socio‐emotional and cognitive functioning (López‐Pérez, Gummerum, Wilson, & Dellaria, 2017). Indeed, this competence is closely linked to social competence, in particular to the ability to form better relationships with teachers, popularity within the peer group and adaptation to the school environment (Denham et al, 2003).…”

Supporting paediatric patients: Parental presence in the anaesthetic journey

“…The final consideration for parental presence is to understand that different processes for presenting information will be required for different age ranges of children. Parents will need to be aware of what is important to support their child in the anaesthetic environment while the child adapts using emotional self-regulation 43 . Infants and young children use facial expressions, gestures or rhythmic sounds to express themselves 44 .…”

The Longitudinal Effects of Early Language Intervention on Children's Problem Behaviors

“…Response-focused strategies seek to modify an emotional response once it has already occurred. The PMER model provides an excellent framework for classifying the many behaviors that children may engage in to regulate their emotions (L opez-P erez, Gummerum, Wilson, & Dellaria, 2016).…”