We suggest that a more plausible mechanism of change in psychotherapy is acquisition of
adaptive emotion regulation strategies.
Development of self - control and
adaptive emotion regulation strategies is an ongoing process that progresses rapidly through the preschool years [23] and continues to develop and emerge through adolescence [24] and into emerging adulthood [18 •](see [15] for a review of emotion regulation development).
A possible explanation for this positive relation is that Rumination and Self - Devaluation are often a reaction to the failure of
adaptive emotion regulation strategies.
In addition, experiencing depressive symptoms is often associated with the use of less effective and
adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as avoidance, rumination and suppression (see for a review Aldao et al. 2010).
This might be explained by the findings that adolescents who experience depressive symptoms use less
adaptive emotion regulation strategies (Aldao et al. 2010), and experience more academic difficulties (Jaycox et al. 2009).
In the eating disorder literature, it is well established that emotion regulation may be compromised among people with BED [63], and that people with BED utilize less
adaptive emotion regulation strategies than healthy controls [64].
Not exact matches
Divergent associations of
adaptive and maladaptive
emotion regulation strategies with inflammation
As can be expected from relations between maladaptive and
adaptive strategies, Avoidance correlated negatively and Aggression did not correlate with Adaptive Emotion Reg
adaptive strategies, Avoidance correlated negatively and Aggression did not correlate with
Adaptive Emotion Reg
Adaptive Emotion Regulation.
The Cognitive
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), for instance, measures 5 adaptive and 4 non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies that children and adolescents use when they experience negative life events [
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), for instance, measures 5 adaptive and 4 non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies that children and adolescents use when they experience negative life event
Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), for instance, measures 5
adaptive and 4 non-
adaptive cognitive
emotion regulation strategies that children and adolescents use when they experience negative life events [
emotion regulation strategies that children and adolescents use when they experience negative life event
regulation strategies that children and adolescents use when they experience negative life events [16,25].
Twelve of these
strategies can be classified under the widely used higher order categories
adaptive and maladaptive
emotion regulation [6,27], making the FEEL - KJ useful for developmental psychopathology research.
If the problem proves to be persistent, an
adaptive emotion regulation response may then be to focus on
strategies whose aim is to attenuate the intensity of the negative
emotions (i.e., Distraction, Forgetting, Humor Enhancement, and Revaluation).
Based on an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Grob and Smolenski [26] concluded in the test manual that the first seven
strategies can be classified as
Adaptive Emotion Regulation and the next six
strategies as Maladaptive
Emotion Regulation.
The
strategies (in both behavioral domains and
emotion regulation) learnt in infancy, constitute an
adaptive advantage because they promote faster and more specific responses within the EEA.
The correlation matrix suggested, in other words, that the Maladaptive
Emotion Regulation factor should be subdivided into three lower - level factors based on their correlation with the
adaptive strategies.
Once these problems have been addressed, cognitive behavioral techniques can be applied to reduce the use of maladaptive
strategies and increase the use of
adaptive strategies based on the
emotion regulation profile derived from the FEEL - KJ.
An interesting instrument in this respect is the FEEL - KJ because it measures 7
adaptive and 5 maladaptive
emotion regulation strategies in response to three different
emotions.
Recent research has emphasized the importance of studying the interaction between
adaptive and maladaptive
emotion regulation strategies in predicting mental health.
The core of MBSR consists of mindfulness exercises that serve to increase awareness of sensations,
emotions and thoughts, to provide self -
regulation strategies, and to promote healthy and
adaptive responses to stress.
Given these relations between
emotion regulation and psychological health, it would be helpful to have a reliable and valid instrument to assess
adaptive and maladaptive
emotion regulation strategies for the age group of children and adolescents.
The authors also found that, using a global emotional and motivational scaffolding scale, mothers demonstrated improved co-
regulation (i.e. higher ratings of global motivational and emotional scaffolding, higher frequency of more
adaptive strategies such as redirection of attention) over the course of the intervention, and that this was also associated with improvements in toddler
emotion regulation (i.e. less expressed negativity and avoidance).
The combination of active and passive co-
regulation strategies with school - age children with ASD may be most beneficial as prompting helps guide a child's emotional experience, while
emotion following helps a child internalize
adaptive emotion regulation skills (Cole et al. 2009).
In adolescence, both typically developing youth and those with ASD report similar levels of
adaptive, voluntary forms of
emotion regulation (e.g., problem solving, emotional control), but those with ASD report higher levels of involuntary
emotion regulation strategies that are generally considered to be maladaptive (e.g., rumination, intrusive thoughts, physiological and emotional arousal, mind going blank and numb)(Mazefsky et al. 2014).