Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute for Psychology, University of Freiburg, Engelbergerstr. 41, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Cognition, Action, and Sustainability, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 11;14(1):21224. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-72336-9.
Adolescence poses significant challenges for emotion regulation (ER) and is thus a critical phase in the emergence of various mental disorders, specifically internalising disorders such as anxiety and depression. Affective control, defined as the application of cognitive control in affective contexts, is crucial for effective ER. However, the relationship between ER and affective control is unclear. This study examined the predictive role of ER strategies and difficulties in affective control, measured as the congruency effect and error rate on an Emotional Stroop task (EST), in a sample of adolescents and young adults (aged 14-21, M = 17.28, 22% male). It was hypothesised that participants with internalising disorders would show higher congruency effects and error rates on the EST than healthy controls after a psychosocial stress induction, indicating lower affective control. Surprisingly, our findings revealed no significant differences in these measures between the groups. However, higher depression scores were associated with increased EST errors. While ER strategies and difficulties did not predict affective control, exploratory analyses unveiled associations between depression scores and ER strategy repertoire, perceived ER success and the ER strategy Acceptance. These findings underscore the importance of implicit ER facets, particularly perceived ER success and flexibility to change between applied strategies for adolescents and young adults with elevated depressive symptoms.
青春期给情绪调节（ER）带来了重大挑战，因此是各种精神障碍（特别是焦虑和抑郁等内化障碍）出现的关键阶段。情感控制，即认知控制在情感环境中的应用，对于有效的 ER 至关重要。然而，ER 和情感控制之间的关系尚不清楚。本研究在青少年和年轻人（年龄 14-21 岁，男性占 22%）样本中，考察了 ER 策略和情感控制困难（表现为情绪 Stroop 任务（EST）中的一致性效应和错误率）对情感控制的预测作用。假设在社会心理压力诱导后，内化障碍患者在 EST 上的一致性效应和错误率会高于健康对照组，表明情感控制能力较低。令人惊讶的是，我们的研究结果并未发现两组之间这些测量值存在显著差异。然而，较高的抑郁评分与 EST 错误增加有关。虽然 ER 策略和困难并不能预测情感控制，但探索性分析揭示了抑郁评分与 ER 策略储备、感知 ER 成功和 ER 策略接受之间的关联。这些发现强调了对青少年和年轻成年人中存在抑郁症状的个体而言，内隐 ER 方面（特别是感知 ER 成功和在应用策略之间灵活转换的能力）的重要性。
