Childhood emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between preschool emotion labeling and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Emotion, Vol 24(1), Feb 2024, 81-92; doi:10.1037/emo0001248Deficits in emotion processing (e.g., emotion labeling and regulation) are widely implicated in depression risk. While prior literature documents these deficits in concurrence with depression, more research is needed to investigate emotion processing pathways of depression risk across development. The purpose of this study was to investigate if emotion processes (i.e., emotion labeling and emotion regulation/dysregulation) in early and middle childhood predict adolescent depressive symptom severity in a prospective sample. Data were analyzed from a longitudinal study of diverse preschoolers oversampled for depressive symptoms using measures of preschool emotion labeling of faces (i.e., Facial Affect Comprehension Evaluation), middle childhood emotion regulation and dysregulation (i.e., emotion regulation checklist), and adolescent depressive symptoms (i.e., PAPA, CAPA, and KSADS-PL diagnostic interviews). Multilevel models indicated that preschoolers with depression had similar development of emotion labeling in early childhood as peers. Mediation analyses revealed that deficits in preschool-aged anger and surprise labeling ability indirectly predicted higher adolescent depressive symptom severity through increased middle childhood emotion lability/negativity, not decreased emotion regulation. Adolescent depression may be predicted by an emotion processing pathway that spans from early childhood to adolescence, and fi...
Source: Emotion - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research