The Pattern And Influence Factors Of Emotion Regulation Choice In Adolescents With Subthreshold Depression

Adolescence is a period of opportunity and challenge for individuals’ emotion regulation(ER).On the one hand,with the rapid development of brain structure and function,adolescents begin to master more diverse and sophisticated ER strategies;on the other hand,in the face of more intense and varying internal and external emotional stimuli,adolescents are at high risk of suffering from emotion dysregulation such as depression.Prior studies primarily focused on the comparison of ER between depressed participants and their no-depressed counterparts.However,according to the spectrum view of depression,depressive symptoms exist on a continuum with no depressive symptoms at one end,major depression disorder at the other,and sub-threshold depression in between.Specifically,sub-threshold depression(sub-D)refers to a mild form of depression with clinically relevant depressive symptoms but fall short of the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder(MDD).Recent studies found that,although to a lesser extent than MDD,sub-D is prevalent and detrimental in adolescent sample.Notably,adolescence is not only a period of first occurrence and rapid development of depressive symptoms,but also a opportunity period of early recognition and effective intervention of depressive symptoms.Hence,the target sample of this research was adolescents with different levels of depressive symptoms.Moreover,in the domain of emotion regulation,latest studies increasingly emphasized the flexibility of choosing adequate ER strategies to fit contextual demands.Thus,this research sought to specifically examine the choice pattern of ER strategies among adolescents with different levels of depressive symptoms,especially the threshold depression adolescents.In addition,based on the extended process model,emotion regulation can be divided into identification(choose ER goals),selection(choose ER strategies),and implementation(implement ER strategies)stages.Therefore,in order to explain the selection of ER strategies,the current research attempted to test the potential differences of choosing ER goals and implement ER strategies.That is,the present research focused on two research questions:(1)are there differences in the choice of ER strategies between subthreshold depressed adolescents and their non-depressed counterparts?(2)if this is the case,can ER strategy implementation and ER goals explain this difference? To answer these questions,the current research consisted of following three parts.The first part examined the relationship between daily ER strategies choice and depressive symptoms among adolescents,in order to lay a foundation for the follow-up studies.In study 1a,a cross-sectional design was adopted to examine the differences of daily choice of ER strategies(reappraisal,rumination,expressive suppression,expressive expression)among adolescents with different depressive symptoms(nondepressed,subthreshold depression,and depression groups).The results showed that both subthreshold depression group and depression group choose less reappraisal,while choose more rumination,expressive suppression,and expressive expression,compared with non-depressed group.In study 1b,a longitudinal design was used to explore the causality of ER strategies choice and depressive symptoms in adolescents.The results indicated that choosing reappraisal in face of positive emotional events negatively predict adolescents’ depressive symptoms a year latter,while choosing rumination in face of negative emotional events positively predict adolescents’ depressive symptoms a year latter,but neither choosing expressive suppression nor expressive enhancement in face of positive and negative emotional events predict adolescents’ depressive symptoms a year latter.The second part examined the choice pattern of reappraisal and rumination in subthreshold depression adolescents when facing emotional stimuli with different intensity and valence.In study 2,adolescents with different depressive symptoms(nondepressed,subthreshold depression,and depression groups)were screened out by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Scale-Depression(CES-D),in order to investigate the differences of choosing reappraisal and rumination among these three groups when facing emotional events with different intensity and valence.The results found that there are significant differences of choosing reappraisal and rumination among nondepressed group,subthreshold depression group,and depression group.Specifically,with the increasement in the intensity of negative emotional events,adolescents with higher depressive symptoms tend to choose less reappraisal and more rumination.In study 3,subthreshold depression adolescents and their non-depressed counterparts were filtered out by the combination of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies ScaleDepression(CES-D)and Patient Health Questionnaire-9(PHQ-9),so as to investigate the differences of choosing reappraisal and rumination between these two groups when facing negative emotional images with different intensity.The results showed that under high-intensity condition,sub-D group chose significantly less reappraisal and more rumination than non-D group,while under low-intensity condition,there were no significant differences between two groups.The third part examined the possible differences of ER strategy implementation and ER goals between subthreshold depression adolescents and their non-depressed counterparts.In study 4a,a behavioral task was used to assess the differences of ability to implement reappraisal and rumination between subthreshold depression group and non-depressed group when facing high-and low intensity negative emotional images.The results revealed that there were no significant differences in the ability to implement reappraisal and rumination in face of high-and low intensity negative emotional images between these two groups.In study 4b,a behavioral task was adopted to measure the differences of choosing down-regulate and up-regulate between subthreshold depression group and non-depressed group when facing high-and low intensity negative emotional images.The results showed that subthreshold depression group both tend to down-regulate instead of up-regulate negative emotional images regardless of high or low intensity.Taken together,above studies systematically investigated the choice pattern and influential factors among adolescents with different depressive symptoms,especially the sub-threshold depression adolescents.The results collectively suggest that:(1)subD adolescents tend to choose less reappraisal and more rumination than non-D adolescents in face of high-intensity instead of low-intensity negative emotional stimuli.These findings further imply that sub-D adolescents may not flexibly select appropriate strategies when facing negative emotional stimuli with different intensities.(2)The ER strategy implementation and emotion regulation goals only partially explain the choice pattern of sub-D adolescents,future studies are needed to examine the cognitive resource depletion and emotion regulation motivation.These findings not only highlight the necessity and importance of focusing on the choice of emotion regulation strategies in adolescents with subthreshold depression,but also have important implications in recognition and intervention for teens with higher depressive symptoms.