The Pattern And Influence Factors Of Emotion Regulation Choice In Adolescents With Trait Anxiety

Adolescence is known as a "stormy period",characterized by the fluctuating emotion reactivity.The emotional problem in adolescents has received a lot of societal attention,especially one major emotional problem – anxiety.In the short term,anxiety is related to academic performance and mental function defects.In the long term,it is closely related to interpersonal relationship and subjective wellbeing(Woodward & Fergusson,2001).Most of previous studies focused on the use of emotion regulation strategies to regulate negative emotion.There were few studies investigating the emotion regulation choice in adolescents with trait anxiety in different intensity negative situations(Vasey et al.,2001).Emotion regulation choice refers to the process in which individuals choose their own emotion regulation strategy in a specific situation(Sheppes & Levin,2013).It can promote the effect of emotion regulation that individuals choose emotion regulation strategies according to different situations flexibly(Gross,2015).Previous studies have found that individuals chose more strategy with long term effect in low intensity situation and chose more strategy with short term effect in high intensity situation(Sheppes et al.,2014).Besides,adolescents with trait anxiety tend to think that emotion is uncontrollable and report low emotional regulation efficacy,which in turn influence their choice of adaptive strategies.In this study,we explore the patterns of emotion regulation choice of adolescents with trait anxiety under different situation,as well as the factors that influence the emotion regulation choice.The result of present study informs the mechanism of emotional regulation and provides implication for the intervention of mental health in adolescents.Therefore,this study focused on the strategies of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance and used different methods to examine emotion regulation choice in adolescents with trait anxiety.First,we explored the applicability of the previous pattern of emotion regulation choice in adolescents with trait anxiety.Second,we examined the pattern of emotion regulation choice of adolescents with trait anxiety.Last,we explored the influence of emotion belief and emotion regulation efficacy on emotion regulation choice.The study consisted with three sections:The first section verified the applicability of the previous pattern of emotion regulation choice in adolescents with trait anxiety.In study 1,two experiments were conducted to examine the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance in low and high intensity situations.Each experiment examined the short-term effects of the strategies through the Reactivity and Regulation-Image Task(The REAR-I Task).One day later,the long-term effects of the strategies were examined by the Reactivity-Image Task.The results of the two studies showed that cognitive reappraisal strategy had short-and long-term effects,while avoidance strategy only had short-term effects.The results verified the applicability of the previous pattern of emotion regulation choice in adolescents with trait anxiety.It has adaptive significance to choose more cognitive reappraisal in low intensity situation,and chose less cognitive reappraisal in high intensity situation for adolescents with trait anxiety.The second section examined the pattern of emotion regulation choice of trait anxiety adolescents.Two studies examined the pattern of emotion regulation choice of adolescents with trait anxiety.In study 2,a few of low and high intensity negative images were presented randomly on the screen in the emotion regulation choice task.Participants were asked to choose a strategy between cognitive reappraisal and avoidance to regulate their emotion.The results found that adolescents with low trait anxiety chose more cognitive reappraisal in low intensity situation and they chose more avoidance in high intensity situation.However,for adolescents with high trait anxiety,there was no significant difference in the choice of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance in low intensity situation,but they chose more avoidance in high intensity situation.In study 3,they completed the semi-open-ended questionnaire of free call.And they were asked to recall two recent negative emotional events with different intensity and report their emotional experience and emotion regulation choice in the events.The results found that low trait anxiety adolescents chose more cognitive reappraisal in low intensity situation and there was no significant difference in the choice of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance in high intensity situation.High trait anxiety adolescents chose more avoidance in low and high intensity situation.In both low and high intensity situation,high trait anxiety adolescents chose less cognitive reappraisal than low trait anxiety adolescents.The third section explored the influence of emotion belief and emotion regulation efficacy on emotion regulation choice.This section included three studies.In study 4,we standardized the daily negative events from study 3 and explored the relationship within anxiety,emotion regulation choice,emotion belief and emotion regulation efficacy.The results found that emotion belief and emotion regulation efficacy played a mediating role between anxiety and emotion regulation choice in low-intensity negative situations,and they played a partial mediating role in high-intensity negative situations.In study 5,adolescents with trait anxiety were randomly assigned to receive the ‘‘emotion is malleable'' passage(the malleable group)or the ‘‘emotion is fixed'' passage(the fixed group).And then they completed the emotion regulation choice task.The results found that emotion belief influenced the pattern of emotion regulation choice in high trait anxiety adolescents.In low negative intensity situation,the malleable group chose more cognitive reappraisal,and there was no significant difference between the choice of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance in high intensity situation.In low negative intensity situation,there was no significant difference between the choice of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance in the fixed group.And they chose more avoidance in high intensity situation.The malleable group chose more cognitive reappraisal than the fixed group in low intensity situation.In study 6,we explored the relationship between the emotion regulation choice and emotion regulation efficacy.Adolescents with trait anxiety were randomly divided into two groups,the experimental group and control group.The experimental group assigned to receive a video which could improve emotion regulation efficacy.And then they finished the standardized daily negative events questionnaire.The results found that emotion regulation efficacy influenced the pattern of emotion regulation choice in high trait anxiety adolescents.In control group,there was no significant difference between the choice of cognitive reappraisal and avoidance in low and high intensity situation.In experimental group,they chose more cognitive reappraisal in low and high intensity situation.The experimental group chose more cognitive reappraisal than the control group in both low and high intensity situations.To sum up,these studies explored the pattern and influence factors of emotion regulation choice in adolescents with trait anxiety.Their major problem of emotion regulation choice was that they chose less cognitive reappraisal in low intensity negative situation.It's the reason why their emotion reactivity was fluctuating.In addition,we found that increasing the level of emotion belief and emotional regulation efficacy could improve their rate of choosing cognitive reappraisal temporarily.It suggested that emotion belief and emotional regulation efficacy were the underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation choice.In future,we can explore the long term effect of emotion belief and emotional regulation efficacy on emotion regulation choice.Taken together,our results have important implications for the intervention of anxiety.