Murray Aja Louise, Russell Amanda, Calderón Alfaro Francisco Antonio
Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon TyneNET, UK.
Dev Psychopathol. 2024 Sep 16:1-8. doi: 10.1017/S0954579424001263.
Emotion dysregulation is considered a transdiagnostic factor with importance for a range of neurodevelopmental and mental health issues, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, internalizing problems, and conduct problems. Emotion regulation skills are acquired from early in life and are thought to strengthen gradually over childhood. Children, however, acquire these skills at different rates and slower acquisition may serve as a marker for neurodevelopmental and mental health issues. The current study uses the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a large longitudinal study to evaluate whether developmental trajectories of emotion regulation across ages 3, 5, and 7 predict levels of ADHD symptoms, internalizing problems, and conduct problems at age 7. Both higher initial levels of and slower reductions in emotion dysregulation across ages 3, 5, and 7 predicted higher ADHD symptoms, conduct problems, and internalizing problems at age 7 in both male and female children. Our findings suggest that monitoring trajectories of emotion regulation over development could help flag at-risk children. Additionally, supporting the acquisition of emotion regulation skills in this critical period could be a promising transdiagnostic preventive intervention.
情绪调节障碍被认为是一个跨诊断因素，对一系列神经发育和心理健康问题具有重要意义，包括注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）症状、内化问题和行为问题。情绪调节技能从生命早期开始习得，并被认为在儿童期会逐渐增强。然而，儿童习得这些技能的速度不同，习得速度较慢可能是神经发育和心理健康问题的一个标志。当前的研究使用了英国千禧队列研究，这是一项大型纵向研究，以评估3岁、5岁和7岁时情绪调节的发展轨迹是否能预测7岁时ADHD症状、内化问题和行为问题的水平。在3岁、5岁和7岁时，情绪调节障碍的初始水平较高以及下降速度较慢，都预示着7岁时男童和女童的ADHD症状、行为问题和内化问题会更严重。我们的研究结果表明，监测情绪调节在发育过程中的轨迹有助于识别有风险的儿童。此外，在这个关键时期支持情绪调节技能的习得可能是一种很有前景的跨诊断预防性干预措施。
