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Decreased emotional awareness contributes to the risk of internalizing disorders, such as depression. Although emotional awareness may be especially important during adolescence, a developmental period in which emotional arousal is high and the risk of depression rises dramatically, little research has examined the mechanisms linking emotional awareness to depression. Starting from affect regulation models, the current study proposes emotion regulation (ER) as a key underlying mechanism in the emotional awareness-depression relationship. The current study investigated whether maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies mediate the relationship between emotional awareness and depressive symptoms among youth using a cross-sectional design. Participants were 220 youth (65% girls; [Formula: see text] = 11.87, SD = 1.94) who filled out a set of questionnaires assessing emotional awareness, ER strategies, and depressive symptoms. Results revealed no direct relationship between emotional awareness and depressive symptoms. However, emotional awareness yielded a significant mediation effect through total adaptive ER strategies on higher depressive symptoms. No evidence was found for the mediating role of maladaptive ER strategies in this relationship. The current study provides further support for affect regulation models positing that emotional awareness may be a basic skill that is required for learning adaptive ER skills, and thus call for greater attention to adaptive ER strategies.

Past research results suggest that executive functioning (EF) impairment represents an important vulnerability factor in depression. Little research, however, has examined mechanisms underlying this association. The current study investigates the associations between EF impairment, emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and depressive symptoms in a sample of 579 adolescents (320 females, mean age = 12.06 years). Parents reported on adolescents' EF and general psychopathology, and adolescents self-reported ER strategies and depressive symptoms. The results indicate that greater EF impairment is associated with more depressive symptoms. Youth with greater EF impairment reported more maladaptive ER and less adaptive ER, and maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies jointly mediated the association between EF impairment and depressive symptoms. The results highlight an important role of both maladaptive and adaptive ER in explaining the relationship between EF and depressive symptoms and suggest that clinical interventions targeting ER skills may provide one strategy for the prevention and treatment of depression. Further longitudinal research is needed to replicate these results and evaluate the causality of the relations.

Recent research suggests that impaired emotion regulation (ER) may play an important role in the development of youth psychopathology. However, little research has explored the effects of ER strategies on affect in early adolescents. In Study 1 (n = 76), we examined if early adolescents are able to use distraction and whether the effects of this strategy are similar to talking to one's mother. In Study 2 (n = 184), we compared the effects of distraction, cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination. In both studies, participants received instructions on how to regulate their emotions after a standardised negative mood induction. In general, the results indicated that distraction, but also cognitive reappraisal and acceptance, had promising short-term effects on positive and negative affect in early adolescents. These findings suggest that targeting adaptive ER skills, such as distraction, acceptance, and cognitive reappraisal, may be an important strategy to prevent or treat psychological problems in early adolescents.