Defense mechanisms, emotion regulation, and social behavior in latency

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of conscious emotion regulation and unconscious defense mechanisms on the socially appropriate behavior of latency-age children. Participants included 57 students (20 male and 37 female, Mage = 9.88 years) and their teachers from two different schools. Student participants told stories to four cards in the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) and filled out self-report measures to assess their ability to consciously regulate their emotions and to behave in a socially appropriate manner; the teachers assed their participating students for the same abilities with other-report versions of the same measures. Two coders used the Defense Mechanisms Manual (DMM; Cramer, 1991) to assess the student participants' defense mechanisms by reviewing their TAT stories for the presence of Denial, Projection, and Identification. Bivariate Pearson correlations revealed that a high amount of Denial in student participants was significantly negatively related to student Emotional Control, as reported by their teachers. Furthermore, students' use of Projection and Identification was significantly positively related to student Emotional Self-Awareness and Word Count to TAT stories. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a) students' gender and grade affected their Socially Appropriate Behavior as reported by their teachers, and b) students' gender affected student-reported Socially Appropriate Behavior even when predictor variables of emotion regulation and defense mechanisms were considered. Findings suggest that the external environment affects the relationship between defenses, emotion regulation and socially appropriate behavior. Limitations of the study and areas for future research are discussed.