Zhang Ni, Liu Wen, Che Hanbo, Fan Xingnan
College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China.
College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China.
J Affect Disord. 2023 Apr 14;327:111-119. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.01.129. Epub 2023 Feb 3.
Depression is one of the main mental health problems facing primary school students. Temperamental effortful control (EC) has received much attention as a protective factor to depression. The present study aimed to verify the association of effortful control and children's depression and explore the mediating roles of emotion regulation ability (ERA) and strategies (ERSs) in the relationship.
A total of 449 valid primary school students in grades 3 to 6 were included in the study. Self-report and parent-report questionnaires were used to collect data on key variables, including EC, depression, ERA and ERSs.
Gender and whether-native-or-not had significant effects on children's depression. EC was significantly and negatively correlated with children's depression; EC and depression were significantly correlated with Emotion Regulation dimension of ERA and cognitive reappraisal; but there was no correlation between EC and Lability/Negativity, as well as between expression suppression and depression. EmotionRegulation and cognitive reappraisal played mediating effects in the relationship between EC and depression parallelly and sequentially.
The study used cross-sectional design and the sample was restricted to Chinese primary school students. Additionally, the types and research perspectives of ERSs can be further expanded.
EC can reduce the level of children's depression by improving the abilities of Emotion Regulation and the use of cognitive reappraisal strategy, as well as the chain mediating effects of the two.
抑郁症是小学生面临的主要心理健康问题之一。气质性努力控制（EC）作为抑郁症的一个保护因素受到了广泛关注。本研究旨在验证努力控制与儿童抑郁症之间的关联，并探讨情绪调节能力（ERA）和策略（ERSs）在两者关系中的中介作用。
本研究共纳入449名三至六年级的有效小学生样本。采用自评和家长报告问卷收集关键变量的数据，包括EC、抑郁症、ERA和ERSs。
性别和是否为本地人对儿童抑郁症有显著影响。EC与儿童抑郁症显著负相关；EC和抑郁症与ERA的情绪调节维度和认知重评显著相关；但EC与情绪不稳定/消极以及表达抑制与抑郁症之间无相关性。情绪调节和认知重评在EC与抑郁症的关系中同时发挥并行和序列中介作用。
本研究采用横断面设计，样本仅限于中国小学生。此外，ERSs的类型和研究视角可进一步拓展。
EC可以通过提高情绪调节能力和认知重评策略的运用能力以及两者的链式中介作用来降低儿童抑郁症水平。
