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Emotion Regulation as a Transdiagnostic Risk Factor for (Non)Clinical Adolescents’ Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology: Investigating the Intervening Role of Psychological Need Experiences

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Abstract

This study investigated emotion regulation (i.e., emotional integration, suppression and dysregulation) as a transdiagnostic process underlying adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Basic psychological need experiences were investigated as a possible underlying mechanism explaining this association. A heterogeneous sample of non-clinical and clinically-referred adolescents reported upon emotion regulation, basic psychological needs (i.e., need satisfaction and frustration), and both internalizing and externalizing problems. Results indicated that dysfunctional emotion regulation was positively linked to internalizing as well as externalizing problems. Need frustration was a partial mediator in this relation between emotion regulation and psychopathology. The findings suggest that both emotion regulation and basic psychological needs may play a transdiagnostic role in adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms.

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Notes

  1. One construct strongly linked to integrative emotion regulation is mindfulness (see Roth, Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2019 for more information on the link between emotional integration and other conceptual frameworks). Mindfulness is defined as nonjudgmental awareness of one’s present moment experiences (Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009). Although integrative emotion regulation and mindfulness are overlapping with regard to the component of receptive awareness (Deci, Ryan, Schultz, & Niemiec, 2015), integrative emotion regulation goes beyond the factor of observing and also involves active interest taking in one’s inner emotional world, with the aim of coordinating these emotional experiences with other aspects of the self (i.e., needs, values, and aspirations) and the situational circumstances (Schultz & Ryan, 2015), using the resulting understanding to regulate the expression or withholding of emotions in a more volitional way.

  2. The three needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, were also substantially intercorrelated. This finding is theoretically plausible because the three needs are assumed to affect one another

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Funding

This study was funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (Grant number: FWO.3EO.2015.0012.01).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Katrijn Brenning, Bart Soenens, Maarten Vansteenkiste & Barbara De Clercq

  2. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Inge Antrop

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  1. Katrijn Brenning
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Correspondence to Katrijn Brenning.

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All procedures performed involving human participants in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ghent University Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Appendix: Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Between the Three Separate Needs, Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology

Appendix: Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Between the Three Separate Needs, Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology

 

DYS

SUP

INT

AS

RS

CS

AF

RF

CF

INT

EXT

Dysregulation (DYS)

–

          

Suppression (SUP)

−.21**

–

         

Integration (INT)

.02

−.41***

–

        

Autonomy satisfaction (AS)

−.26***

−.18*

.34***

–

       

Relatedness satisfaction (RS)

−.33***

−.21**

.40***

.62***

–

      

Competence satisfaction (CS)

−.39***

−.20**

.27***

.69***

.63***

–

     

Autonomy frustration (AF)

.29***

.26***

−.19**

−.64***

−.53***

−.60***

–

    

Relatedness frustration (RF)

.43***

.09

−.18*

−.53***

−.71***

−.58***

.58***

–

   

Competence frustration (CF)

.48***

.14†

−.25***

−.60***

−.54***

−.75***

.56***

.63***

–

  

Internalizing problems (INT)

.49***

.09

−.23**

−.56***

−.62***

−.70***

.64***

.67***

.75***

–

 

Externalizing problems (EXT)

.38***

.16*

−.20**

−.17*

−.27***

−.22**

.35***

.39***

.31***

.42***

–

M

2.95

3.27

3.17

3.21

3.65

3.13

2.85

2.25

3.11

23.82

12.49

SD

0.82

0.78

0.67

0.85

0.94

0.98

1.04

1.01

1.13

14.54

8.65

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Brenning, K., Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M. et al. Emotion Regulation as a Transdiagnostic Risk Factor for (Non)Clinical Adolescents’ Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology: Investigating the Intervening Role of Psychological Need Experiences. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 53, 124–136 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01107-0

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