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The transition from childhood to adolescence often elicits psychological problems, which provides great opportunities for organizing universal, school-based prevention programs. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Boost Camp, a new prevention program targeting young adolescents' emotion regulation skills. Junior high school adolescents (n = 347; 53% female, M-age = 11.92) from six schools were randomly allocated to the intervention condition (n = 139) or to the control condition (n = 208), using a clustered randomized controlled design. Program integrity was evaluated by adolescents, trainers, and independent coders. Questionnaires were used to assess primary outcomes (emotion regulation and emotional wellbeing), secondary outcomes (school achievement, bullying experiences, and psychological stigmatization), and moderators (gender, psychological problems, and executive functioning). Assessment of the main outcome variables was conducted at baseline, post intervention, and three as well as six months' follow-up. Qualitative analyses showed a good program adherence and positive evaluations of the program. Furthermore, main results demonstrated that Boost Camp had short-term effects on depressive symptoms, self-esteem, indirect bullying experiences, and psychological stigmatization. However, no significant effects on emotion regulation were found and all beneficial effects immediately after the intervention disappeared at follow-up. Program effects were not moderated by gender, executive functioning impairments, or symptoms of psychopathology. These findings demonstrate that Boost Camp is feasible as a universal, school-based program and that it has the potential to enhance wellbeing outcomes, at least short-term and when implemented by external trainers. Several suggestions to optimize the program in order to obtain long-term effects are included in the discussion section.

Objectives Previous studies demonstrated that self-compassion may generate positive effects on adults' mental health through its impact on stress responses. As adolescence is characterized by elevated levels of stress, self-compassion may be particularly relevant for this age group. The aim of this study was to assess the immediate effects of a brief training in self-compassion on adolescents' stress recovery following a validated stress induction. Methods Fifty-three adolescents between 11 and 18 years old (64% girls) were randomly assigned to a self-compassion group or a control group prior to undergoing a three-phase experiment (i.e., baseline, stress induction, and instruction phase). Adolescents in the self-compassion group received a brief training in self-compassion before the start of the experiment and were asked to use the learned technique during the instruction phase. Adolescents in the control group did not receive a training and were provided with neutral instructions during the instruction phase. Physiological stress outcomes (i.e., salivary cortisol, heart rate, and heart rate variability) and self-reported stress outcomes (i.e., self-reported affect) were compared between groups. Results The main results revealed no clear differences between both groups pertaining physiological and self-reported stress responses. Conclusions The current findings could not provide evidence for the beneficial effects of a brief self-compassion training among adolescents, and even suggest that it may have detrimental effects on the physiological stress response. Findings are discussed within a developmental framework and important considerations for further research are noted.

Recent studies emphasize the role of emotion dysregulation as an underlying mechanism initiating and maintaining emotional eating in obesity. Since multidisciplinary obesity treatment (MOT) does not directly address emotion regulation (ER), the current study aimed to investigate the feasibility of an ER training in children and adolescents with obesity on top of MOT. Feasibility was evaluated multi-informant on relevant parameters e.g. practicability, satisfaction, change in affect and homework compliance.Participants (N = 50, M_age = 12.26, 60.7 % girls) with obesity received a brief ER training and were assigned to one out of three conditions to learn one specific ER strategy (i.e., Cognitive reappraisal, Distraction or Acceptance). Afterwards the ER strategy was further trained by a homework assignment during 5 consecutive days. Children and adolescents, trainers and as well as the educators of the treatment center completed a feasibility questionnaire.The training was positively evaluated by different informants for 11 out of 19 feasibility criteria. Only one implementation barrier was reported regarding homework compliance. Furthermore, some important considerations could be taken into account e.g. session length and motivation.Reports suggest that, with some modifications, it is feasible to implement an ER training on top of MOT. In addition, future training protocols should focus on other essential components of ER (e.g., emotional awareness, emotional flexibility).

Contains fulltext : 222467.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Adolescence is a critical developmental period in which intense experienced negative emotions need to be successfully regulated in order to decrease the risk of developing psychopathology. This study investigated the immediate and prolonged effects of training emotion regulation (ER) in 256 young adolescents (9-13 years). The four experimental conditions in which an ER skill (acceptance, distraction, cognitive reappraisal, and problem solving) was trained were compared with two control conditions (rumination, performing a cognitive task). Results revealed that: (1) happy affect significantly increased and sad and anxious affect significantly decreased in the four experimental ER conditions but also in the cognitive task condition. Rumination did not have beneficial ER effects. (2) In the experimental condition, the effects on sad and happy affect were more prominent after using distraction, problem solving, and cognitive reappraisal compared to using acceptance. (3) There were no long-term effects of the ER training (ERT) at 1-month follow-up. These results demonstrate that young adolescents are able to use distraction, acceptance, cognitive reappraisal and problem solving, but that the effects of those strategies do not outperform the effects of a neutral cognitive task. In addition, our findings confirm that rumination leads to the maintenance and increase of negative affect, at least short-term. Further research should explore the effects of a more extensive ERT on intense affect states in young adolescents and should investigate the supplementary effects of such a program compared to a neutral cognitive distraction task. 19 p.

Background: The prevalence rates of childhood obesity are growing. The current multidisciplinary treatments for (childhood) obesity are working, but only in short term and rather moderate. Therefore, research needs to search for underlying mechanisms that can improve the existing multidisciplinary treatments. A possible underlying mechanism can be ‘Emotion Regulation’, referring to “the processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions”. Gross (1998) states that these Emotion Regulation processes play a crucial role in whether medical and psychological consequences are developed as a result of negative affect. The research model for this RCT-study states that when high levels of stress are regulated in a maladaptive way, this can contribute to the development of obesity. Three processes are playing a role: 1) stress physiology (cortisol), 2) low grade inflammation and 3) emotional eating. We see that the prevalence of emotional eating is higher in children and adults with obesity, in comparison with average weight individuals. Method: The current study will recruit 140 youngsters (10-14 years) that are involved in an inpatient multidisciplinary obesity treatment program. Seventy of them will receive an Emotion Regulation Training on top of care as usual. The training itself consists of 12 weekly sessions. After the end of this training, two booster sessions will be given. The participants will be tested pre, post and at 6 months’ follow-up. We hypothesize that compared to the control condition, the youngsters in the intervention condition will (1) use more adaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies, (2) use less the strategy of emotional eating, (3) will report a better sleep quality, (4) result in an improved weight-loss and weight-loss maintenance and (5) result in a better long-term (6-months) psychological well-being. This manuscript proposes the protocol for the Randomized Controlled Trial study. Discussion: This study will add to both the scientific and clinical literature on the role of emotion regulation in the development and maintenance of different psychopathologies, as emotion regulation is a transdiagnostic factor. Trial Registration: The RCT-study protocol is registered at ISRCTN Registry, with study ID ‘ISRCTN 83822934’. Registered at 13 december 2017; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN83822934

In dit hoofdstuk wordt stapsgewijs de EuREKA-training besproken. De EuREKA-training is een transdiagnostisch emotieregulatietrainingsprotocol voor jongeren met psychische klachten. De training is gebaseerd op de goed geevalueerde Affect Regulation Training (ART) voor volwassenen, ontwikkeld door Berking en Whitley (2014). Deze bestaat uit zes basiscompetenties die in twaalf sessies sequentieel aangeleerd worden. Uniek is dat in deze training eerst bottom-upcompetenties geleerd worden en pas daarna de bekendere top-downstrategieen, wat ervoor zorgt dat de noodzakelijke basiscompetenties reeds aanwezig zijn en het leereffect van de regulatiestrategieen vergroot wordt. De EuREKA-training is ontworpen als een groepsprogramma. Het protocol is per bijeenkomst uitvoerig beschreven, er is een werkboek voor de jongeren, en er is audiovisueel materiaal voor het geven van psycho-educatie.

Tijdens de vroege adolescentie worden jongeren geconfronteerd met intense en vaak overweldigende gevoelens waardoor hun vermogen tot emotieregulatie op de proef wordt gesteld. Om die reden is het uiterst belangrijk om te weten welke emotieregulatiestrategieen werkzaam zijn en hoe we deze kunnen aanleren aan jongeren. In dit hoofdstuk komen drie emotieregulatiestrategieen aan de orde die reeds vaak wetenschappelijk onderzocht zijn en adaptief blijken te zijn voor jongeren, namelijk afleiding zoeken, cognitieve herbeoordeling en probleemoplossing. Daarnaast wordt ook stilgestaan bij een aantal basisvaardigheden waarover jongeren moeten beschikken om hun emoties adequaat te kunnen reguleren. Bovendien krijgt de lezer meer informatie over kortdurende interventies die ontwikkeld zijn om het gebruik van specifieke adaptieve emotieregulatiestrategieen aan te leren aan jongeren. Er wordt dieper ingegaan op de structuur en inhoud van deze interventies, en er worden ook steekkaartjes aangeboden die jongeren kunnen helpen bij het toepassen van deze emotieregulatiestrategieen.

De manier van omgaan met emoties speelt een belangrijke onderliggende rol in de ontwikkeling van psychopathologie, ook bij kinderen en jongeren. Over het algemeen blijkt uit onderzoek bij zowel kinderen en jongeren als volwassenen dat een overmatig gebruik van maladaptieve emotieregulatiestrategieen in het omgaan met negatieve emoties en een tekort in het gebruik van adaptieve emotieregulatiestrategieen verband houdt met de ontwikkeling en instandhouding van allerhande vormen van psychopathologie. Daarbij wordt onderzoek naar de rol van emotieregulatiestrategieen voor het begrijpen van psychopathologie grotendeels gestuurd vanuit twee visies, zijnde de transdiagnostische visie op emotieregulatie en de emotieregulatiespecificiteitshypothese. In dit hoofdstuk gaan we dieper in op beide visies en illustreren we de rol van emotieregulatie bij vier klinische groepen: jongeren met depressie, eetstoornissen, obesitas en verslaving.

Background The transition from childhood into adolescence can be considered as a critical developmental period. Moreover, adolescence is associated with a decreased use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies and an increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies increasing the risk of emotional problems. Targeting emotion regulation is therefore seen as an innovative prevention approach. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Boost camp, an innovative school-based prevention program targeting ER, on adolescents’ emotion regulation skills and emotional wellbeing. Also secondary outcomes and possible moderators will be included. Methods The aim is to reach 300 adolescents (16 class groups, 6 schools) in their first year of high school. A clustered Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) with two conditions, intervention (n = 150) and control (n = 150), will be set up. Adolescents in the intervention condition will receive 14 lessons over the course of 2 days, followed by Booster sessions, and will be compared with adolescents in a non-intervention control group. The outcomes will be measured by self-report questionnaires at baseline, immediately after Boost camp, and at three and 6 months follow-up. Discussion Data-collection is planned to be completed in May 2018. Data-analyses will be finished the end of 2018. The presented paper describes the Boost camp program and the clustered RCT design to evaluate its effectiveness. It is expected that Boost camp will have beneficial effects. If found effective, Boost camp will have the potential to increase adolescent’s ER and well-being, and reduce the risk to become adults in need. The trials is registered on the 13th of June 2017 in ISRCTN registry [ISRCTN68235634].

Decreased emotional awareness contributes to the risk of internalizing disorders, such as depression. Although emotional awareness may be especially important during adolescence, a developmental period in which emotional arousal is high and the risk of depression rises dramatically, little research has examined the mechanisms linking emotional awareness to depression. Starting from affect regulation models, the current study proposes emotion regulation (ER) as a key underlying mechanism in the emotional awareness—depression relationship. The current study investigated whether maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies mediate the relationship between emotional awareness and depressive symptoms among youth using a cross-sectional design. Participants were 220 youth (65% girls; $$M_{\text{age}}$$ = 11.87, SD = 1.94) who filled out a set of questionnaires assessing emotional awareness, ER strategies, and depressive symptoms. Results revealed no direct relationship between emotional awareness and depressive symptoms. However, emotional awareness yielded a significant mediation effect through total adaptive ER strategies on higher depressive symptoms. No evidence was found for the mediating role of maladaptive ER strategies in this relationship. The current study provides further support for affect regulation models positing that emotional awareness may be a basic skill that is required for learning adaptive ER skills, and thus call for greater attention to adaptive ER strategies.

It is often assumed that emotional eating occurs when an individual is unable to utilise emotion regulation (ER) to cope with stress. In this stress exposure study, we explored whether manipulating participants’ ER strategies (rumination or self-compassion) influenced their stress-related affect and food consumption. Fifty-three adolescents (Mage = 14.72) were included; half of the participants were instructed to use rumination as their ER strategy, and half were instructed to use self-compassion. We could not demonstrate that the ER strategies differently affected stress-related affect. However, we did find that increased Happiness following ER self-compassion predicted reduced High-Fat Sweet food consumption, whereas increased Happiness following ER rumination instead led to greater High-Fat Sweet food consumption. In participants who ruminated, food consumption reduced feelings of Frustration, but not Boredom or Happiness. Post-hoc exploration revealed that only ER self-compassion, not ER rumination, normalised levels of stress-related affect. The results highlight the need for more research into the complex relationship between ER strategies, affect states, and food types in their effect on emotional eating.