We thank the children and families who have participated in our studies and the research assistants of the Emotion Regulation Lab for their assistance with data collection and coding.

NOTE: The university&#39;s institutional review board approved all procedures before recruitment or data collection with human subjects began. Parents provide informed consent for children&#39;s participation, and children provide verbal (or, verbal and written if older than 7 years) assent to participate in these activities.
1. Randomly Assign Participants to Experimental Conditions
<ol>
	<li>Test the effects of two different emotions and two different emotion regulation strategy instructions against a control ...

<ol>
	<li>Stegge, H., Meerum Terwogt, M., Reijntjes, A., Van Tijen, N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Implicit theories on the (non)expression of emotion: A developmental perspective. The sixth volume of the series biobehavioral perspectives on health and disease prevention. , (2004).</li><li>Saarni, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> The development of emotional competence. , (1999).</li><li>Graziano, P. A., Reavis, R. D., Keane, S. P., Calkins, S. D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+role+of+emotion+regulation+in+children's+early+academic+success.">The role of emotion regulation in children's early academic success.</a> Journal of school psychology. 45 (1), 3-19 (2007).</li><li>Denham, S. A., Blair, K. A., DeMulder, E., Levitas, J., Sawyer, K., Auerbach-Major, S., Queenan, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Preschool+emotional+competence:+Pathway+to+social+competence?.">Preschool emotional competence: Pathway to social competence?.</a> Child development. 74 (1), 238-256 (2003).</li><li>Southam-Gerow, M. A., Kendall, P. C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotion+regulation+and+understanding:+Implications+for+child+psychopathology+and+therapy.">Emotion regulation and understanding: Implications for child psychopathology and therapy.</a> Clinical psychology review. 22 (2), 189-222 (2002).</li><li>Gross, J. J., John, O. P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Individual+differences+in+two+emotion+regulation+processes:+implications+for+affect,+relationships,+and+well-being.">Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being.</a> Journal of personality and social psychology. 85 (2), 348 (2003).</li><li>McRae, K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+development+of+emotion+regulation:+an+fMRI+study+of+cognitive+reappraisal+in+children,+adolescents+and+young+adults.">The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults.</a> Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 7 (1), 11-22 (2012).</li><li>Rusting, C. 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A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term="Just+stop+thinking+about+it":+effects+of+emotional+disengagement+on+children's+memory+for+educational+material.">"Just stop thinking about it": effects of emotional disengagement on children's memory for educational material.</a> Emotion. 7 (4), 812 (2007).</li><li>Davis, E. L., Levine, L. J., Lench, H. C., Quas, J. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Metacognitive+emotion+regulation:+children's+awareness+that+changing+thoughts+and+goals+can+alleviate+negative+emotions.">Metacognitive emotion regulation: children's awareness that changing thoughts and goals can alleviate negative emotions.</a> Emotion. 10 (4), 498-510 (2010).</li><li>Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., Dennis, T. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotion+regulation+as+a+scientific+construct:+Methodological+challenges+and+directions+for+child+development+research.">Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research.</a> Child development. 75 (2), 317-333 (2004).</li><li>Thompson, R. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Methods+and+measures+in+developmental+emotions+research:+Some+assembly+required.">Methods and measures in developmental emotions research: Some assembly required.</a> Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 110 (2), 275-285 (2011).</li><li>Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. 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A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotion+regulation:+A+theme+in+search+of+definition.">Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition.</a> Monographs of the society for research in child development. 59 (2-3), 25-52 (1994).</li><li>Beauchaine, T. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Vagal+tone,+development,+and+Gray's+motivational+theory:+Toward+an+integrated+model+of+autonomic+nervous+system+functioning+in+psychopathology.">Vagal tone, development, and Gray's motivational theory: Toward an integrated model of autonomic nervous system functioning in psychopathology.</a> Development and psychopathology. 13 (02), 183-214 (2001).</li><li>Porges, S. 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T., Grossman, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Whither+vagal+tone.">Whither vagal tone.</a> Biological psychology. 74 (2), 295-300 (2007).</li><li>Buss, K. A., Hill Goldsmith, H., Davidson, R. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Cardiac+reactivity+is+associated+with+changes+in+negative+emotion+in+24-month-olds.">Cardiac reactivity is associated with changes in negative emotion in 24-month-olds.</a> Developmental Psychobiology. 46 (2), 118-132 (2005).</li><li>Calkins, S. D., Dedmon, S. E. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Physiological+and+behavioral+regulation+in+two-year-old+children+with+aggressive/destructive+behavior+problems.">Physiological and behavioral regulation in two-year-old children with aggressive/destructive behavior problems.</a> Journal of abnormal child psychology. 28 (2), 103-118 (2000).</li><li>El-Sheikh, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Parental+drinking+problems+and+children's+adjustment:+Vagal+regulation+and+emotional+reactivity+as+pathways+and+moderators+of+risk.">Parental drinking problems and children's adjustment: Vagal regulation and emotional reactivity as pathways and moderators of risk.</a> Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 110 (4), 499 (2001).</li><li>Hastings, P. D., Nuselovici, J. N., Utendale, W. T., Coutya, J., McShane, K. E., Sullivan, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Applying+the+polyvagal+theory+to+children's+emotion+regulation:+Social+context,+socialization,+and+adjustment.">Applying the polyvagal theory to children's emotion regulation: Social context, socialization, and adjustment.</a> Biological psychology. 79 (3), 299-306 (2008).</li><li>Porges, S. W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Physiological+regulation+in+high-risk+infants:+A+model+for+assessment+and+potential+intervention.">Physiological regulation in high-risk infants: A model for assessment and potential intervention.</a> Development and Psychopathology. 8 (01), 43-58 (1996).</li><li>Suess, P. E., Porges, S. W., Plude, D. 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The authors have nothing to disclose.

Critical Steps within the Protocol
Effectively eliciting negative emotion and instructing children to use specific emotion regulation strategies are the critical steps within the protocol.
Modifications and Troubleshooting
Film clips must be selected (and pilot tested) to be age-appropriate given the age range in question to ensure they evoke the target emotions of interest for the specified age ranges. Researchers should also take care to make...

Children experience negative emotions like sadness and fear every day. As they develop and mature, children learn regulatory strategies that allow them to manage a broad range of stressors and challenges to adapt to the world. Their emotion regulation repertoire expands, and shifts in composition from primarily behavioral strategies to include more cognitive strategies1. By the end of middle childhood, children regulate their emotions using both cognitive and behavioral strategies2. Understanding the effective regulation or management of unwanted negative feelings has become increasingly interesting to developmental scientists in recent years. This interest is driven, in part, by research linking emotion regulation processes to a host of social, emotional, and cognitive outcomes with substantial consequences for children&#39;s daily lives (e.g., academic achievement3, friendships4, and psychopathology5).
The method described here focuses on two cognitive emotion regulation strategies that have received the lion&#39;s share of empirical attention to date: reappraisal and distraction. Studies done with adults have shown that reappraisal and distraction are effective methods for alleviating emotion6,7,8,9,10,11. Reappraisal, which involves changing or reframing how one interprets an emotion or problem, has been shown to be effective in reducing the intensity of negative emotions in school-aged children12,13. Distraction, in contrast, involves changing what one is thinking about, such as when a child about to receive a vaccine thinks instead of the ice cream they will enjoy with their parent afterwards. Children can also begin to use these cognitive strategies to regulate negative emotions effectively, from as young as 5 - 6 years of age14.
The Theoretical and Practical Challenges of Studying Emotion Regulation
Emotional reactivity and regulatory processes are intertwined, bidirectional, and iterative15,16. Thus, a key conceptual challenge for developmental scientists is to identify and employ methods that meaningfully distinguish between emotion responding and regulatory processes. The approach described here takes the view of emotions as regulated (in contrast to emotions as regulating)15. Emotion regulation is defined as the process of changing an experienced emotion17 in ways that alter the intensity, duration, and/or valence of the emotion18.
Despite promising behavioral evidence that cognitive emotion regulation strategies like distraction and reappraisal reduce negative emotions14, there are many limitations to the predominant self-report or observational methodologies that constrain the conclusions that can be drawn from existing empirical studies, especially with young children. For example, self-report of emotional experience is subject to inaccuracies and demand characteristics. Although behavioral observation (e.g., of facial expressions) to index emotional responding is ostensibly more objective than self-report, observation is still subject to automatic and explicit regulatory processes that mask or hide the true experience of distress or negative emotion. To address these conceptual and methodological issues, this paper describes a method of examining the effects of emotion regulation strategies on children&#39;s subsequent psychophysiology that allows researchers to more clearly distinguish between reactivity to and active regulation of negative emotions. This experimental paradigm for eliciting negative emotions and assessing the consequences of different instructed emotion regulation strategies provides an approach that can be used with children of a wide range of ages, adolescents, or adults.
Psychophysiology Is a Non-Invasive Index of Emotion Regulation
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) is a commonly used index of parasympathetic cardiac psychophysiology, and has emerged as a key correlate of children&#39;s emotion regulatory ability19,20. RSA is derived from the measurement of heart rate variation (controlled by efferent fibers of the vagus nerve) within the respiratory cycle21,22. High baseline RSA indicates better emotional regulation and socio-emotional competencies21, whereas lower baseline RSA is linked to negative socio-emotional outcomes23. Baseline RSA reflects the system&#39;s regulatory capacity to respond to stress, whereas changes in RSA from baseline levels under conditions of challenge (RSA reactivity) enable greater sympathetic influence and resource mobilization. This process reflects a shift away from homeostatic demands to the facilitation of sustained attention, behavioral self-regulation, and the generation of coping strategies to control affective or behavioral arousal20,26. RSA reactivity to challenging lab tasks is associated with better emotion regulatory abilities and general adaptive functioning, including less negative emotionality and risk for behavior problems and better sustained attention21,23,24,25,26,27. RSA reactivity to challenge can be described as increasing (RSA augmentation) or decreasing (RSA suppression) parasympathetic influence. The flexibility with which parasympathetic influence over the heart is regulated across contexts is thought to underlie adaptive emotion regulation.
Indeed, changes in children&#39;s RSA amplitudes during a series of challenging tasks predict their emotional regulatory skill28. RSA is responsive in emotionally challenging contexts as well. For example, RSA suppression (a decrease from baseline level to task level) is linked to experiencing fear and sadness, but augmentation (increase from baseline to task) is linked to effective regulation of emotion when sadness and fear are evoked via film clips29,30. Previous work that has capitalized on the utility of this non-invasive method for assessing in vivo emotion regulation processes has demonstrated how children&#39;s use of specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies predicted RSA reactivity while they were watching emotion-eliciting videos31. This paper describes a novel experimental paradigm that uses the physiological patterns associated with active emotion regulation to index regulatory ability, providing an innovative method to parse the experience and regulation of negative emotions.

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psychophysiological assessment of the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies in childhood

Effective regulation of emotion is one of the most important skills that develops in childhood. Research interest in this area is expanding, but empirical work has been limited by predominantly correlational investigations of children's skills. Relatedly, a key conceptual challenge for emotion scientists is to distinguish between emotion responding and emotion regulatory processes. This paper presents a novel method to address these conceptual and methodological issues in child samples. An experimental paradigm that assesses the effectiveness with which children regulate emotion is described. Children are randomly assigned to use specific emotion regulation strategies, negative emotions are elicited with film clips, and changes in subsequent psychophysiology index the extent to which emotion regulation is effective. Children are instructed to simply watch the emotion-eliciting film (control), distract themselves from negative emotions (cognitive distraction), or reframe the situation in a way that downplays the importance of the emotional event (cognitive reappraisal). Cardiac physiology, continuously acquired before and during the emotional task, serves as an objective measure of children's unfolding emotional responding while viewing evocative films. Key comparisons in patterns of obtained physiological reactivity are between the control and emotion regulation strategy conditions. Representative results from this approach are described, and discussion focuses on the contribution of this methodological approach to developmental science.

As shown in Figures 2 and 3, a typical result is that instructing children to use cognitive emotion regulation strategies leads to a different pattern of RSA reactivity than simply viewing the emotional film (Control). This supports the idea that instructions to regulate negative emotion using distraction or reappraisal give rise to different patterns of physiological responding during an emotionally challenging task, given the difference in responding am...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood at JoVE.com

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood

A detailed protocol for an experimental paradigm to assess the effectiveness with which children regulate emotion is described. Children are randomly assigned to use specific emotion regulation strategies, negative emotions are elicited with film clips, and changes in subsequent psychophysiology index the extent to which emotion regulation is effective.

Effective regulation of emotion is one of the most important skills that develops in childhood. Research interest in this area is expanding, but empirical ...

The overall goal of this experimental paradigm is to assess the effectiveness with which children regulate negative emotions by measuring changes in psychophysiology while they use emotion regulation strategies. This method can help answer key questions in developmental, emotion, and clinical fields of psychology, such as how effective different emotion regulation strategies are for children to use to manage negative emotion. The main advantage of this technique is that it enables researchers to distinguish between children's emotional responding and emotion regulation processes using a non-invasive, objective methodology.Though this laboratory-based method provides insight into children's development. It could easily be applied to adolescent and adult populations, and modified to examine different emotional contexts or strategies. Begin by randomly assigning children to one of the six conditions before they arrive at the laboratory, keeping an equal number of boys and girls in each condition.Then at the beginning of the visit, escort the child to the testing room and sit at a small table with him or her. To establish rapport with the child, introduce art supplies the child can use if desired. Ask two to three questions about the child's hobbies and interest to engage the child in friendly conversation.Once the child is acclimated to the environment, train him or her to self-report the intensity of his or her emotional reactions, either sadness, fear, anger, or happiness, by using a simple four-point cartoon face scale to rate each discreet emotion separately. Note that each scale depicts a neutral face followed by three faces depicting increasingly exaggerated target facial expressions for each emotion. Next present one scale to the child and read the scale anchors aloud while pointing to each corresponding face.Then explain the task. Today we are going to play a lot of different games, and sometimes we will ask you to tell us what you are thinking and feeling. This scale shows some sad faces.You can use this to tell us how sad you are feeling at different times today. Then explain each face and how to use the scale. For each emotion scale, ask the child two practice questions to ensure comprehension.Which face would you point to if you felt very sad? And where would you point if you felt not at all sad? If the child points to an incorrect face or expresses confusion about what to do, repeat the instructions until the child answers two practice items correctly.Next, bring in a second adult experimenter to assist with placement of electrodes for the electrocardiogram or ECG. Let the child choose a few stickers from a sheet and secure these stickers to three disposable pre-gelled electrodes. Then place these electrodes over the child's distal right collar bone, lower left rib, and lower right rib, to acquire the ECG signal.After attaching the electrodes, give the child five minutes to acclimate to wearing the sensors. Finally, keep the child occupied with a coloring book while acquiring a resting parasympathetic baseline for five minutes, and continue the ambulatory wireless ECG recording for the rest of the visit as the child completes the experiment. Begin by asking the child to self report how they are really feeling right now using the same four-point emotion face scale in order to capture baseline emotion.For a child assigned to the control condition, show a short movie clip to the child and instruct him or her based on the scripted emotion regulation instructions to pay attention to all the things that happen in the movie. For a child assigned to the distraction condition, show a short movie clip, but in this condition instruct the child to think about something happy if he or she feels bad while watching it. For a child assigned to the reappraisal condition, say I want you to think about how everything that is happening in the movie is not really happening, so it's not a big deal.Think about how it's just a movie and isn't real, okay? Can you try to do that? Ensure that the child understands the instructions by providing follow up questions before starting the film clips.Once the child is properly instructed based on condition, begin the experiment by showing the child one standardized film clip, about three to five minutes long, to elicit negative emotions. After watching the emotion-eliciting film clip ask the child to self report their feelings again, using the face scale. Once the emotion regulation task is complete remove the ECG electrodes.Finally, during debriefing, provide a positive affect emotion induction by showing a short funny film clip to ensure the child does not leave the laboratory feeling upset. Begin by opening the analysis software and selecting the correct participant file on the data file path. In the Events and Modes tab, enter the correct start and end time of the episode, and enter 30 seconds as the segment time.Next, in the Calibration Settings tab, select the high frequency range for the age of children in the study. Then click on the Analyze button on the lower right. Observe a segment of the data appear on the screen with the question, Is the EKG inverted?Visually inspect the data and respond No if it looks normal or Yes if it looks inverted. Visually inspect data for artifacts and make corrections as needed. Click the green Edit R's button at the top to inspect and edit a segment of data.Check the respiratory sinus arrhythmia, or RSA, value for each segment on the RSA section on the lower right of the screen. Finally, write the clean and edited data to a spreadsheet file using the white Write button on the top of the page. After the segments are written, click the red Done button at the top of the screen.Instructing children to use cognitive emotion regulation strategies leads to a different pattern of RSA reactivity than simply viewing the emotional film. Different scores reveal RSA augmentation in general, but a different pattern of reactivity is seen depending on the children's condition assignment. Using sample-specific residualized change scores, children who used reappraisal had average reactivity, children who used distraction had less augmentation, and the control condition had greater reactivity for the sad film but average for the scary film.Once mastered, this technique can be completed in 30 minutes if it is performed properly. While attempting this procedure, it's important to remember to give clear emotion regulation instructions to the child, and check that they understand what they are supposed to do. This procedure can easily be modified or expanded to examine the effectiveness of other emotion regulation strategies, other discreet emotions, or other developmental periods to answer additional questions of interest to psychologists.

psychophysiological-assessment-effectiveness-emotion-regulation

Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

11.3K Views.  University of California, Riverside (UCR). The overall goal of this experimental paradigm is to assess the effectiveness with which children regulate negative emotions by measuring changes in psychophysiology while they use emotion regulation strategies. This method can help answer key questions in developmental, emotion, and clinical fields of psychology, such as how effective different emotion regulation strategies are for children to use to manage negative emotion. The main advantage of this technique is that it enables researchers...