Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to examine the association between emotion regulation and adolescent adjustment and whether parent and peer factors moderated this link. The sample consisted of 206 families with 10–18-year-old adolescents from predominantly ethnic minority and low-income families. We assessed emotion regulation and antisocial behavior (via parent and adolescent reports); depressive symptoms were based on youth reports. In addition, we examined the following moderators: observed parent-adolescent relationship quality and youth reports of parental emotion coaching, peer prosocial behavior, and peer-youth openness. Findings indicated that emotion regulation was negatively and significantly related to adolescent antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms. Evidence for moderating effects was found for antisocial behavior but not depressive symptoms. Specifically, the link between youth emotion regulation and antisocial behavior was attenuated under high levels of parent-child relationship quality and peer prosocial behavior. Implications for emotion socialization among adolescents from low-income families are discussed.
Highlights
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Investigated whether the link between adolescent emotion regulation and adjustment was moderated by parent and peer factors.
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Evidence for moderation was found in the prediction of adolescent antisocial behavior but not depressive symptoms.
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The link between emotion regulation and antisocial behavior was attenuated under high levels of parent–youth relationship quality.
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The association between emotion regulation and antisocial behavior was attenuated under high levels of peer prosocial behavior.
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Notes
The effects of three-way interactions (IV, moderator, and adolescent age) also were examined in separate exploratory path models for each moderator. None of the three-way interactions were significant indicating that there were no significant age differences regarding the moderating effects of parents and peers.
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This research was supported by a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oklahoma Agriculture Experiment Station Project grant (OKL02659), an Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) grant Project (#HR11-130), and a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1R15HD072463-01) R15 grant.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Oklahoma State University Internal Review Board–IRB: HE0886) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Criss, M.M., Cui, L., Wood, E.E. et al. Associations between Emotion Regulation and Adolescent Adjustment Difficulties: Moderating Effects of Parents and Peers. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1979–1989 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01972-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01972-w