Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1439-5181
Access Type
Campus-Only Access for One (1) Year
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Psychology
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2023
Month Degree Awarded
May
Abstract
Deliberate Emotion Regulation (ER), the effortful regulation of emotions, is strongly linked to psychopathology. In adults, deliberate ER is often experienced as a self-narrative, such as reappraising a negatively perceived scenario. However, researchers have yet to study how young children articulate deliberate ER strategies, whether these strategies relate to real-time ER neurophysiological processes, and how they are associated with psychopathology. Thus, from an existing sample of 59 children, I aimed to examine preschool-aged children’s verbally articulated ER strategies prior to a frustration challenge, and related these strategies to subsequent neural and physiological responses to frustration and psychopathology. I categorized children’s responses into two groups: those who articulated any emotion regulation strategy (i.e., “strategy”) and those who did not articulate a strategy (i.e., “no strategy”). We found that about 70% of children in this age range were able to articulate an emotion regulation strategy. Children who articulated a strategy had lower psychophysiological stress during a frustration task and fewer parent-reported ADHD inattention symptoms than children who did not articulate a strategy. There were no observed differences between groups for Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) activation, parent-reported externalizing symptoms, or parent-reported irritability symptoms. To our knowledge, this study is the first to provide evidence that emotion regulation strategy articulation is an emerging skill, and that children who are able to articulate emotion regulation strategies are also able to change their physiological stress in response to a negative emotion challenge and have fewer symptoms of psychopathology.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/35552554.0
First Advisor
Adam Grabell
Second Advisor
Kirby Deater-Deckard
Third Advisor
Maureen Perry-Jenkins
Recommended Citation
Bivins, Zachary, "Early Childhood Emotion Regulation Strategy Articulation, its Neurophysiological Correlates, and Association with Psychopathology" (2023). Masters Theses. 1361.
https://doi.org/10.7275/35552554.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/1361