Social Facilitation of Emotion Regulation in Adolescence

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Emotion Regulation
• Interventions: Behavioral: Cognitive regulation; Behavioral: Social regulation

• Registration Number: NCT06458920
• Lead Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles

Brief Summary

The goal of this project is to test whether regulating emotions with help from a friend is more effective and long-lasting in adolescents than regulating alone, and to characterize age-related differences in the neural mechanisms supporting social versus cognitive emotion regulation. Participants will complete a psychology experiment while undergoing fMRI scanning.

Detailed Description

Participants will complete a novel paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether adolescents (N = 50) and adults (N = 50) are more effective at down-regulating negative affect when a friend provides them with reinterpretations of negative stimuli (i.e. social reappraisal), as compared to when they reinterpret stimuli alone (i.e., cognitive reappraisal). Specifically, participants will look at pictures of upsetting events while undergoing fMRI scanning. For some pictures, they will be instructed to just look at the image. For other pictures, they will be told to listen to their friend's voice as their friend helps them to regulate their emotions. For other pictures, they will be told to regulate their emotions on their own. The primary comparison of interest is how participants regulate emotion on their own versus when their friend helps them.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2022-10-05
• Status Verified: 2024-06
• Study First Submitted: 2024-06-07
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-06-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-06-12
• Study First Posted: 2024-06-14
• Last Update Posted: 2024-06-14
• Primary Completion: 2025-06-01
• Study Completion: 2025-06-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 100

Inclusion Criteria

• Adolescent participants must be 13-15 year of age
• Adult participants must be 20-25 years of age
• Proficient in English

Exclusion Criteria

• Auditory, visual or cognitive impairment
• Any health conditions that are contraindicated for MRI

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Cognitive regulation	Cognitive regulation	Participants will regulate emotion on their own
Social regulation	Social regulation	Participants will regulate emotion with the help of a friend

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Negative affect	1 day	Participant's self-reported negative affect on 1-4 scale (1=not bad at all, 4=very bad) during experiment

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of California, Los Angeles; 🇺🇸 Los Angeles, California, United States