Abstract
Emotion regulation is among the factors that maintain or interfere with individuals’ mental health. The authors could not find any self-rating scales that had been developed for children and adolescents that assessed rumination, problem-solving, distraction, and cognitive reappraisal simultaneously. In the absence of a suitable instrument, little research has been done on effects of emotion regulation on mental health in children and adolescents. The present authors developed the Emotion Regulation Scale for Elementary and Middle School Students (ERS-EM) by combining items measuring cognitive reappraisal and an existing scale that measures other emotion regulation strategies, such as rumination. The present study is a cross-sectional examination of the relationships of these emotion regulation strategies to depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior in 4th to 9th grade students (2,692 elementary school students, 2,629 middle school students; 2,735 boys, 2,586 girls). Factor analysis of the Emotion Regulation Scale for Elementary and Middle School Students revealed 4 factors: rumination, problem-solving, cognitive reappraisal, and distraction. This supported the construct validity of the Emotion Regulation Scale for Elementary and Middle School Students. Furthermore, rumination was associated with worse scores on depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior. Problem-solving and distraction were associated with scores indicating less depression and aggression, whereas only problem-solving was associated with alleviation of aggression. No effect of cognitive reappraisal on either depression or aggression was found.
