Half of all lifetime mental health disorders emerge in childhood (Kessler et al., 2007) and continue to develop through developmental stages. The transition from childhood to adulthood is a stressful developmental period during which anxiety problems are the most common mental health disorders, with a lifetime prevalence ranging from 15% to 30% (Essau, Conradt, & Petermann, 2002; Merikangas et al., 2010). Unfortunately, despite the notable negative impact of anxiety disorders on functioning at the social, emotional, and academic level, and their huge socioeconomic costs, their etiology remains unclear (Beidel & Alfano, 2011). From the moment of a child's birth, their emotional and physiological responses will be influenced by their parents through dyadic interactions that occur thousands of times during their development (Patterson, Dishion, & Bank, 1984). Quality interactions have been shown to foster secure parent-child attachment and to contribute to a child's social, cognitive, and emotional development over the years (Harrist & Waugh, 2002; Saint-Georges et al., 2013). In contrast, poor interactions have been associated with the emergence of problematic child behaviors (e.g., Landy & Menna, 2001). Research into developmental and social psychology indicates that the presence of non-verbal synchrony in dyadic interactions is associated with higher quality relationships, conformity, and more

Adolescence is a vulnerable period for depressive and anxious symptom development, and emotion regulation (ER) may be one mechanism linking temperament—i.e., positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)—with such symptomatology. Rumination is a common ER strategy that is traditionally assessed using self-reported questionnaires, but it would also be interesting to examine it with an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) approach. Sixty-five adolescents (Mage = 14.69; SDage = 0.82; range = 14–17 years old; 53.80% girls) completed self-report measures of temperament, ER style, depression and anxiety, and underwent an EMA to investigate rumination use. Results revealed that negative ER style and rumination use mediated the relationship between NA and depression, while only rumination use mediated the relationship between PA and depression. Moreover, NA contributed to increase anxiety, but negative ER style did not significantly mediate this relationship. Rumination use also had no effect on anxiety. This study provides further support for the relationship between temperament, ER, and internalizing problems. It seems that both a negative ER style and rumination use mediate the relationship between NA and depression whereas only NA had a significant direct effect on anxiety. Furthermore, PA buffered the effect of rumination use on depression in this study.

This study explored the association between temperament—i.e., positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)—and emotion regulation (ER), and what momentary factors influence the selection of rumination or reappraisal during adolescents’ daily life. The type of social situation in which negative events occurred, the self-rated degrees of discomfort, the types of predominant emotions experienced, and the use of reappraisal and rumination were assessed at 24 different times with an ecological momentary assessment approach given to 71 adolescents. PA, NA, and ER style were evaluated using self-reports. Bivariate Pearson correlations analysis revealed that NA and negative ER style correlated positively with the rumination use whereas PA correlated negatively with the rumination use. Negative ER style moderated the relationship between NA and the frequency with which rumination was used. The moderated function of positive ER style could not be tested due to its lack of association with the rumination use. Adolescents selected rumination more often during family-related events and when experiencing depression-like emotions. No interaction effects were shown between negative ER style and the momentary factors related with the type of social situation and the type of prevailing emotion during negative event. No associations between study variables and reappraisal were found. This study provides a better understanding of ER patterns in adolescence.

No abstract