Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Pediatr Int. 2021 Nov;63(11):1303-1310. doi: 10.1111/ped.14661. Epub 2021 Oct 4.
The ability to regulate emotion effectively plays a key role in child psychosocial development and mental health. The current study examines the effect of cognitive training for executive function on emotion regulation in Chinese preschool children, and further investigate the underlying mediating mechanisms.
A cluster randomized control trial design with pre-test and post-test was conducted in 61 preschool children aged 3-6 years in China. The intervention group consisted of 30 children who received eight cognitive training sessions on executive function, while the control group consisted of 31 children who did not receive any psychological training. Children's executive function was measured individually via five laboratory tasks both in the pre-test and post-test. Adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies were coded in emotion-elicit contexts.
Intervention group outperformed control group in working memory and inhibitory control. Children in the intervention group exhibited increased use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies and decreased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies than children in the control group. Mediation analyses indicated that there were significantly indirect effects of Intervention Condition on the gain scores of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies through the gain score of inhibitory control.
Executive function training effectively promotes working memory, inhibitory control and the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and reduces the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. In addition, executive function training improves the use of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies through the enhancement of inhibitory control capacity.
有效调节情绪在儿童心理社会发展和心理健康中起着关键作用。本研究考察了认知训练对执行功能对中国学龄前儿童情绪调节的影响，并进一步探讨了潜在的中介机制。
在中国，对 61 名 3-6 岁的学龄前儿童进行了一项包含前测和后测的整群随机对照试验设计。干预组由 30 名接受了八项执行功能认知训练的儿童组成，而对照组由 31 名未接受任何心理训练的儿童组成。儿童的执行功能通过五项实验室任务在前后测中进行个体测量。适应性和适应性情绪调节策略在情绪诱发的情境中进行编码。
干预组在工作记忆和抑制控制方面的表现优于对照组。与对照组相比，干预组的儿童表现出更多地使用适应性情绪调节策略，更少地使用适应性情绪调节策略。中介分析表明，通过抑制控制能力的提高，干预条件对适应性和适应性情绪调节策略的增益分数存在显著的间接影响。
执行功能训练可有效提高工作记忆、抑制控制和适应性情绪调节策略的使用，并减少适应性情绪调节策略的使用。此外，执行功能训练通过提高抑制控制能力，提高了适应性和适应性情绪调节策略的使用。
