Why Do Adolescents Use Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies? The Role of Perceived Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance, and Impulsivity

• Main Author: Moran, Karena M
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Behavioral psychology; Developmental psychology
• ISBN: 1339733455; 9781339733456

Much is known about outcomes associated with adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. However, less research has explored predictors of strategy use. The present study examined perceived effectiveness of strategies (i.e., how effective individuals believe a strategy is at decreasing negative affect or increasing positive affect) as a predictor of strategy use. The sample of 139 adolescents (Mage =15.50, 60.4% male) reported their use of regulatory strategies for positive and negative emotions and how effective they believed each strategy was at changing their emotional state in the desired direction (i.e., more positive, less negative). Strategies were aggregated into adaptive and maladaptive scales for each affective type. Covarying age and gender, four hierarchical linear regression models revealed that perceived effectiveness was significantly associated with strategy use. These findings indicate that adolescents’ perceived effectiveness of strategies is a strong predictor of strategy use, which may have important educational and clinical implications.