The Link Between Adolescent Girls’ Interpersonal Emotion Regulation with Parents and Peers and Depressive Symptoms: A Real-Time Investigation

• In Event: Emotion regulation in children and adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a developmental period distinguished by heightened emotion (Larson, Csikszentmihalyi, & Graef, 1980) and social sensitivity (Blakemore & Mills, 2014) that warrant the use of emotion regulation strategies. It is believed that parents and peers play key socializing roles in adolescents’ emotion regulation development (Miller-Slough & Dunsmore, 2016). Yet, little is known about how parents and peers directly co-regulate with teens in daily life, including their effectiveness in down regulating negative affect and links to longer-term adjustment. This study examined adolescent girls’ use of interpersonal emotion regulation strategies with parents and peers in response to negative social interactions. We also tested differential associations between rates of daily parental and peer co-regulation and depressive symptoms measured concurrently and one year later. We conducted sensitivity analyses to examine associations among co-regulation frequencies and anxiety symptoms if significant relations among depressive symptoms emerged. Adolescent girls (N=112; Mage=12.39; 68.8% White, 18.8% Black. 9.8% Biracial, 8.9% Hispanic/Latino) at temperamental risk for anxiety and depression completed a 16-day ecological momentary assessment measuring daily negative reactivity to negative social interactions, parental and peer interpersonal emotion regulation, and current negative affect. Results indicated that adolescents used more adaptive strategies (acceptance, problem-solving, cognitive reappraisal, support seeking) with peers and more maladaptive strategies (rumination, cognitive and behavioral avoidance) with parents in daily life—although this effect was small. Multilevel models showed that both parental and peer co-regulation effectively down-regulated negative affect, as indicated by adolescents’ decreased likelihood of experiencing continued negative affect. Longitudinal analyses indicated that higher proportions of everyday parental involvement in adaptive strategy use predicted reduced depressive symptoms one year later. Sensitivity analyses indicated that longitudinal findings were unique to depressive symptoms. Findings suggest key potential for leveraging adolescent girls’ natural tendency to engage in adaptive co-regulation with peers. Findings also show that both parents and peers are effective at helping teens down-regulate everyday negative emotions—even when teens tend to engage in more maladaptive strategies with parents. However, findings suggest that parents offer more enduring benefits for adolescent girls’ long-term adjustment by engaging in everyday adaptive co-regulation.

Authors

• Quyen B. Do, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Kirsten M.P. McKone, University of Pittsburgh

• Jessica Leigh Hamilton, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Lindsey B. Stone

• Cecile D Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh

• Jennifer S. Silk, University of Pittsburgh