Emotion regulation, emotion and behavioral problems and prosocial behaviors in school-aged children: a pilot study

Objective: Emotion regulation is psychological process playing a key role in affective, social, and cognitive development. Poor emotion regulation is related to psychological problems while high emotion regulation is related to adaptive functioning in children. The present pilot study aimed at testing the relationship between emotion regulation and emotional and behavioral problems in a community sample of school-aged children. Methods: A convenience community sample of 65 children from 6 to 13 years of age (M=8,6; SD= 1.87) were assessed on emotion regulation, emotional and behavioral problems, and prosocial behaviors. Statistical analyses were performed to test age and gender differences, associations between emotion regulation and emotional and behavioral problems, and predictors of psychological difficulties in children. Results: Age and gender differences were not found in emotion regulation, psychological problems and prosocial behaviors, although girls showed higher emotion regulation, higher prosocial behaviors and lower externalizing behaviors than boys. As expected, emotion regulation was positively associated with prosocial behaviors and negatively associated with emotional and behavioral problems. Conversely, emotional lability/negativity was associated with psychological problems, particularly those related to externalizing behaviors. Both emotion regulation and emotional lability/negativity were independent predictors of psychological difficulties in children. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that the capacity to regulate emotions is essential in promoting psychological well-being in children. Because of its transdiagnostic nature, it is important to deeply investigate how specific components of emotion regulation impact on children's mental health. Despite evident research advances, the lack of a valid and reliable measure that integrates the assessment of both implicit and explicit components of emotional regulation in children remain an important gap that must be filled by future research.