Abstract

The authors relied on the Process Model of Emotion Regulation (PMER; J. J. Gross, Citation2007) to investigate children's abilities to regulate their emotions and to assess how distinct emotion regulation strategies are used by children of different ages. In Study 1, 180 parents of children aged between 3 and 8 years old reported about a situation in which their child had been able to change what she or he was feeling. In Study 2, 126 children 3–8 years old answered 2 questions about how they regulate their own emotions. Results from both studies showed age differences in children's reported emotion regulation abilities and the strategies they used. As expected, strategies such as situation selection, situation modification, and cognitive change were used more frequently by 5–6- and 7–8-year-olds, whereas attention deployment was mainly used by 3–4-year-olds. No age differences were found for response modulation. The present research contributes to the existing body of literature on emotion regulation by adding more information about the developmental patterns for each specific emotion regulation strategy.

DOI

10.1080/00221325.2016.1230085

Publication Date

2016-10-14

Publication Title

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

ISSN

1940-0896

Embargo Period

2024-11-22

Comments

peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=vgnt20

First Page

1

Last Page

16

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