Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct;49(10):1345-1358.
doi: 10.1007/s10802-021-00814-z. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Emotion Regulation as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Cognitive Biases and Depressive Symptoms in Depressed, At-risk and Healthy Children and Adolescents

A Sfärlea  1 , K Takano  2 , C Buhl  1 , J Loechner  1   3 , E Greimel  1 , E Salemink  4 , G Schulte-Körne  1 , B Platt  5
Affiliations

Emotion Regulation as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Cognitive Biases and Depressive Symptoms in Depressed, At-risk and Healthy Children and Adolescents

A Sfärlea et al. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Contemporary cognitive models of depression propose that cognitive biases for negative information at the level of attention (attention biases; AB) and interpretation (interpretation biases; IB) increase depression risk by promoting maladaptive emotion regulation (ER). So far, empirical support testing interactions between these variables is restricted to non-clinical and clinical adult samples. The aim of the current study was to extend these findings to a sample of children and adolescents. This cross-sectional study included 109 children aged 9-14 years who completed behavioural measures of AB (passive-viewing task) and IB (scrambled sentences task) as well as self-report measures of ER and depressive symptoms. In order to maximize the variance in these outcomes we included participants with a clinical diagnosis of depression as well as non-depressed youth with an elevated familial risk of depression and non-depressed youth with a low familial risk of depression. Path model analysis indicated that all variables (AB, IB, adaptive and maladaptive ER) had a direct effect on depressive symptoms. IB and AB also had significant indirect effects on depressive symptoms via maladaptive and adaptive ER. These findings provide initial support for the role of ER as a mediator between cognitive biases and depressive symptoms and provide the foundations for future experimental and longitudinal studies. In contrast to studies in adult samples, both adaptive as well as maladaptive ER mediated the effect of cognitive biases on depressive symptoms. This suggests potentially developmental differences in the role of ER across the lifespan.

Keywords: Attention bias; Depression; Eye-tracking; Interpretation bias; Youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Path model testing mediating role of ER between cognitive biases and depressive symptoms in youth. Notes: AB = Attention Bias; IB = Interpretation Bias; ER = Emotion regulation
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Passive-viewing Task (PVT) stimulus display
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Scrambled Sentences Task (SST) trial procedure
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Path model with standardized coefficients. Notes. AB = Attention Bias; IB = Interpretation Bias; ER = Emotion regulation. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aldao A, Nolen-Hoeksema S, Schweizer S. Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review. 2010;30(2):217–237. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.11.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Author.
    1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.
    1. Armstrong T, Olatunji BO. Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: a meta-analytic review and synthesis. Clinical Psychology Review. 2012;32(8):704–723. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2012.09.004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bebko GM, Franconeri SL, Ochsner KN, Chiao JY. Look Before You Regulate: Differential Perceptual Strategies Underlying Expressive Suppression and Cognitive Reappraisal. Emotion. 2011;11(4):732–742. doi: 10.1037/a0024009. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources