Enhancing Emotion Regulation and Brain Connectivity in Adolescent Girls Through Parental Emotion Socialization: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Objective: Parental emotion socialization is theorized to influence adolescent emotion regulation. However, the causal nature of this relationship and the underlying neural mechanism has not been investigated.

Method: An emotion-focused parenting intervention targeting emotion socialization was used to experimentally manipulate parental emotion socialization and investigate its effect on emotion regulation and emotion regulation-related neural functional connectivity, in early adolescent girls with elevated internalizing symptoms. Seventy 10-12-year-old female adolescents with elevated internalizing symptoms and their mothers were recruited. Mothers were randomized to the intervention group (n = 35) or the waitlist control group (n = 35). The Tuning in to Teens emotion-focused parenting intervention was delivered in 8x1-hour weekly sessions to mothers. Adolescent emotion regulation was assessed using mother and adolescent reports at pre-intervention and at 6-month follow-up. Adolescent emotion regulation-related brain functional connectivity during functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks was measured at the same time points.

Results: Sixty dyads remained for analysis (Intervention n = 30; waitlist n = 30). Relative to control adolescents, adolescents in the intervention group showed increased insula-supplementary motor area and insula-precuneus functional connectivity from pre-intervention to 6-month follow-up, and improved mother-reported adolescent emotion regulation.

Conclusion: Findings provide causal evidence that parental emotion socialization enhances emotion regulation capacity in female adolescents at risk of internalizing disorders.

Keywords: emotion regulation; fMRI; functional connectivity; parental emotion socialization; randomized controlled trial.