ABSTRACT

Understanding and regulating emotions influence children’s friendships. Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) have difficulties in understanding emotions and in controlling themselves. Τhe present study examines how children’s friendships and their quality may be affected by emotion understanding and regulation skills. Participants were 64 children with ADHD, 64 children with SLD, and 64 typically developing (TD) children (M_age = 9.77 years, SD = 1.22) who answered questionnaires about their friendships, and their emotion understanding and regulation. Results showed that ADHD children had less friends, lower friendship qualities, worse understanding of emotions and control of their impulsivity, and used less cognitive reappraisals to regulate emotions, followed by SLD children and finally by TD children. Children with SLD reported using more expressive suppressions for regulating emotions. For all children, emotion understanding and regulation predicted higher friendship quality. The results support the significance of understanding and regulating emotions upon the quality of children’s best friendships.

摘要

理解和调节情绪会影响孩子的友谊。患有注意力缺陷/多动障碍 (ADHD) 和特定学习障碍 (SLD) 的儿童难以理解情绪和控制自己。本研究探讨了儿童的友谊及其质量如何受到情绪理解和调节技能的影响。参与者为 64 名 ADHD 儿童、64 名 SLD 儿童和 64 名典型发育 (TD) 儿童（M_年龄 = 9.77 岁，SD = 1.22）谁回答了关于他们的友谊，以及他们的情绪理解和调节的问卷。结果表明，ADHD儿童的朋友较少，友谊品质较低，对情绪的理解能力和对冲动的控制能力较差，较少使用认知重评来调节情绪，其次是SLD儿童，最后是TD儿童。患有 SLD 的儿童报告说使用更多的表达抑制来调节情绪。对于所有儿童，情绪理解和调节预示着更高的友谊质量。结果支持理解和调节情绪对儿童最佳友谊质量的重要性。