Adolescent Emotion Regulation: Structure, Influencing Factors And Implication For School Adaptation

Emotion is the core power of the individual's whole life. Emotion regulation is the important aspect of individual's early development, and it is also the key mechanism of adaptation and healthy. The adolescent is in the key development period of mind and body, and it is also in the important transitional period of emotion from instable to stable, which is also the sensitive period of appearing emotion disorder. The emotion regulation strategies they take and the emotion regulation competence they have when they face the negative emotions will have important implication for their learning, living and development. The emotion regulation research will not only enrich the emotion psychology research and further the related theories of personality psychology, health psychology and development psychology, but also provide theory guidance for mental health education, mental therapy and psychological consultation, which have important theory meaning and practical guidance value.In order to advance the study of adolescent emotion regulation, this study developed theory research and document summary firstly, it reviewed the definition and function of emotion regulation, research methods and measurement means, research perspectives and research orientations, theory models, and the related of influencing factors and forecasting effect, and made cross-culture resolution to the Chinese and Western traditions of emotion regulation especially. On this basis, through series empirical researches of adolescent emotion regulation, it had obtained the following conclusions:1. The adolescent emotion regulation strategies were multi-levels and multi-dimensions in structure. Viewed from the nature of the emotion regulation strategies, it mainly consisted of positive emotion regulation strategies and negative emotion regulation strategies. The positive emotion regulation strategies consisted of cognitive reappraisal, positive refocusing, seeking help and behavior diverting. The negative emotion strategies consisted of self-blame, rumination, self-suppressing, attacking and letting off compliant. The adolescent emotion regulation competence was multi-dimensions in structure, which mainly consisted of emotion controlling competence, emotion recovering competence and strategy application competence. On the basis of theory structure, the adolescent emotion regulation strategies scale and the emotion regulation competence scale passed through the strict psychological surveying test, and they had good credibility and validity, consequently, they could be counted as means of evaluating adolescent emotion regulation state.2. According to this research, the adolescent emotion regulation had significant differences among sex, grade, class representative, study achievement, parents relationship, family economical status, whether only child in family, school type, and parenting styles. In terms of sex, there was no significant difference in positive emotion regulation strategies, but male's score was low to female in negative emotion regulation strategies, and male's score was high to female in emotion regulation competence. In terms of grade, adolescent emotion regulation fluctuated greatly. Adolescent who were in junior 3 and senior 3 scored lower in positive emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation competence, and higher in negative emotion regulation strategies than other grades. The class representatives scored higher in positive emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation competence, and lower in negative emotion regulation strategies than other classmates. The superior students scored higher in positive emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation competence, and lower in negative emotion regulation strategies than the inferior in study achievement. The adolescent whose parents'relationships were harmony score higher in positive emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation competence, and lower in negative emotion regulation strategies. The adolescent who were from rich family scored higher in positive emotion regulation strategies, and lower in negative emotion regulation strategies than those who were from poor family. The adolescent who were only child in family scored higher in emotion regulation competence, and lower in negative emotion regulation strategies than those who were not only child in family. The students who were from ordinary school scored higher in cognitive reappraisal and seeking help, but lower in behavior diverting. The adolescent who were under democratic parenting style scored higher in positive emotion regulation strategies, and lower in negative emotion regulation strategies than other parenting styles.3. The research indicated that positive emotion regulation strategies were significantly positively correlated with emotion regulation competence, and most correlation coefficients were above 0.40; the negative emotion regulation strategies were significantly negatively correlated with emotion regulation competence, and most correlation coefficients were above -0.30. The nine sorts of emotion regulation strategies had a strong predictive effect on emotion regulation competence, which could explain 50.1% of total variance, among which the positive emotion regulation strategies could explain 36.9% of total variance and the negative emotion regulation strategies could explain 13.2% of total variance.4. The adolescent emotion regulation influencing factors research consisted of four pats. The first three researches explored the influence of parent-child attachment, personality and self-efficacy on emotion regulation. The conclusions indicated that parent-child attachment, personality and self-efficacy had efficiently predicting effect on emotion regulation. In the fourth research, we established an integrating model of the parent-child attachment, personality and self-efficacy's influence on emotion regulation from the angle of ecological system. The results indicated that parent-child attachment not only had direct effect on emotion regulation, but also had indirect effect on emotion regulation competence through personality, self-efficacy, positive emotion regulation strategies and negative emotion regulation strategies; personality not only had direct effect on emotion regulation, but also had indirect effect on emotion regulation competence through self-efficacy, positive emotion regulation strategies and negative emotion regulation strategies; self-efficacy only had direct effect on emotion regulation competence.5. The research indicated that emotion regulation was strong correlated with school adaptation. The emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation competence had a strong predictive effect on school adaptation. Through establishing the structure equation model of emotion regulation and school adaptation, the results indicated that emotion regulation competence not only had direct effect on social competence, but also had indirect effect on social competence through positive emotion regulation strategies and negative emotion regulation strategies; emotion regulation competence had no direct effect on antisocial behavior, it only had indirect effect on antisocial behavior through negative emotion regulation strategies. The last part was to draw a conclusion. The research results were analyzed and explored deeply, and the practice value of this research was summarized. The innovation and limitation of this research were explored based on it. The assumption of the research was presented at last.Briefly, knowing about the development characteristics of adolescent emotion regulation, analyzing the influencing factors of emotion regulation and exploring the emotion regulation's effect on school adaptation would help understand the status and role of emotion regulation in mental life. It could also provide consultation for intervening adolescent emotion regulation in order to ensure the adolescent to develop healthily.