Emotion regulation difficulties in traumatized youth: a meta-analysis and conceptual review
Open accessAbstract
This article provides a quantitative and conceptual review of emotion regulation difficulties in trauma-exposed young people, and informs future directions in the field. Despite long-standing interest in the influence of emotion regulation difficulties on different internalizing and externalizing psychiatric disorders in childhood, several questions remain unresolved with respect to children and adolescents with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Meta-analytic data from adult victims suggest that emotion regulation problems are associated with PTSD, but this has never been studied in children and young people. We therefore provide a conceptual review of features related to the phenomenology, assessment, severity and treatment of emotion regulation difficulties in trauma-exposed children and young people. We combine this with a meta-analysis of published literature. We searched studies in Medline, PsychINFO, and Embase databases based on pre-selected criteria. Eight hundred and eighty-six papers were identified and 41 were included. We found that children and adolescents with a diagnosis of PTSD reported more emotion regulation difficulties than those who did not develop PTSD, and that the overall association between the two symptom dimensions was moderately strong. We identify a number of research priorities: the development of instruments to assess emotion regulation difficulties in children, the design of studies that describe its prevalence in young epidemiological traumatized samples, its predictive role in the onset, severity and persistence of post-traumatic symptoms, and its relevance as a moderator, outcome or treatment target for young survivors.
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Childhood trauma raises the risk of later cognitive, psychological, and social difficulties.
“childhood trauma increases the risk for a variety of subsequent cognitive, psychological, and social problems”
From Interventions for prevention and treatment of substance use in youth with traumatic childhood experiences: a systematic review and synthesis of the literature (2024) · cites this paper as [6]
The Introduction says traumatic experiences in young people can elicit posttraumatic symptoms and disrupt emotion regulation. The section on PTSD conceptualization also describes interpersonal-relationship and self-perception problems in severely traumatized patients. The paper does not establish the broader claim that childhood trauma increases the risk of subsequent cognitive, psychological, and social problems as a whole; its Discussion notes that limited longitudinal data constrain causal inferences. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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References 96 · Cited by 119
Research works printed but not linked: 4
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- [48]48. Pelaprat M (2010) Complex trauma among court-involved youth. Dissertation, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
- [52]52. Thapar A et al (ed) Rutter's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 6th edn. Wiley- Blackwell, pp 53-64
- [86]86. Ovaert LB (1998) Posttraumatic stress disorder in adolescents with conduct disorder: Pre-and post- treatment comparison of trauma types. Dissertation, University of North Texas
- Authors
- Villalta, L., Smith, P., Hickin, N., & Stringaris, A.
- Affiliations
- Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona (ES)
- King's College London (GB)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Villalta, L.
- Venue
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Published
- 2018-01-27
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 527-544
- ISSN
- 1018-8827 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-165X
- OpenAlex
- W2786897612
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 96
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 1.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- kclpure.kcl.ac.uk
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Fundación Alicia Koplowitz
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- emotional dysregulation, post-traumatic stress disorder, childhood trauma, internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders, PTSD symptom severity, PTSD treatment, trauma epidemiology
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Child, Emotions, Female, Humans, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Survivors
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