Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence

Although adolescents’ emotional lives are thought to be more turbulent than those of adults, it is unknown whether this difference is attributable to developmental changes in emotional reactivity or emotion regulation. Study 1 addressed this question by presenting healthy individuals aged 10–23 with...

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Main Authors: Silvers, Jennifer A., McRae, Kateri, Gross, James J., Remy, Katherine A., Ochsner, Kevin N., Gabrieli, John D. E.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Psychological Association (APA) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112163
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-5692
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author Silvers, Jennifer A.
McRae, Kateri
Gross, James J.
Remy, Katherine A.
Ochsner, Kevin N.
Gabrieli, John D. E.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Silvers, Jennifer A.
McRae, Kateri
Gross, James J.
Remy, Katherine A.
Ochsner, Kevin N.
Gabrieli, John D. E.
author_sort Silvers, Jennifer A.
collection MIT
description Although adolescents’ emotional lives are thought to be more turbulent than those of adults, it is unknown whether this difference is attributable to developmental changes in emotional reactivity or emotion regulation. Study 1 addressed this question by presenting healthy individuals aged 10–23 with negative and neutral pictures and asking them to respond naturally or use cognitive reappraisal to down-regulate their responses on a trial-by-trial basis. Results indicated that age exerted both linear and quadratic effects on regulation success but was unrelated to emotional reactivity. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings using a different reappraisal task and further showed that situational (i.e., social vs. nonsocial stimuli) and dispositional (i.e., level of rejection sensitivity) social factors interacted with age to predict regulation success: young adolescents were less successful at regulating responses to social than to nonsocial stimuli, particularly if the adolescents were high in rejection sensitivity. Taken together, these results have important implications for the inclusion of emotion regulation in models of emotional and cognitive development.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1121632022-09-29T18:51:33Z Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence Silvers, Jennifer A. McRae, Kateri Gross, James J. Remy, Katherine A. Ochsner, Kevin N. Gabrieli, John D. E. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Gabrieli, John D. E. Although adolescents’ emotional lives are thought to be more turbulent than those of adults, it is unknown whether this difference is attributable to developmental changes in emotional reactivity or emotion regulation. Study 1 addressed this question by presenting healthy individuals aged 10–23 with negative and neutral pictures and asking them to respond naturally or use cognitive reappraisal to down-regulate their responses on a trial-by-trial basis. Results indicated that age exerted both linear and quadratic effects on regulation success but was unrelated to emotional reactivity. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings using a different reappraisal task and further showed that situational (i.e., social vs. nonsocial stimuli) and dispositional (i.e., level of rejection sensitivity) social factors interacted with age to predict regulation success: young adolescents were less successful at regulating responses to social than to nonsocial stimuli, particularly if the adolescents were high in rejection sensitivity. Taken together, these results have important implications for the inclusion of emotion regulation in models of emotional and cognitive development. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award BCS-0224342) National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award MH076137) National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award HD069178) National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award MH094056) 2017-11-09T18:56:03Z 2017-11-09T18:56:03Z 2012-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1931-1516 1528-3542 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112163 Silvers, Jennifer A. et al. “Age-Related Differences in Emotional Reactivity, Regulation, and Rejection Sensitivity in Adolescence.” Emotion 12, 6 (2012): 1235–1247 © 2012 American Psychological Association https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-5692 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028297 Emotion Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Psychological Association (APA) PMC
spellingShingle Silvers, Jennifer A.
McRae, Kateri
Gross, James J.
Remy, Katherine A.
Ochsner, Kevin N.
Gabrieli, John D. E.
Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
title Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
title_full Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
title_fullStr Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
title_full_unstemmed Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
title_short Age-related differences in emotional reactivity, regulation, and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
title_sort age related differences in emotional reactivity regulation and rejection sensitivity in adolescence
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112163
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1158-5692
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