Coping, emotion regulation, and psychopathology in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis and narrative review.

“Second, we calculated Egger’s tests to assist in the interpretation of the funnel plots, which is a statistical test used to detect funnel plot asymmetry (Egger et al., 1997).”

“The Compas et al. (2001) definition is linked to a control-based model of coping that includes primary control coping (i.e., efforts to directly act on the source of stress or one’s emotions, including problem solving and emotional expression), secondary control coping (i.e., efforts to adapt to the source of stress,…”

“Third, we conducted trim and fill analyses (Duval & Tweedie, 2000) to determine how many studies would need to be included above or below the meta-analytic mean to make the funnel plot symmetrical.”

“…paradigms that elicit negative emotions and instruct participants to use specific emotion regulation strategies to regulate the experience of negative emotion (e.g., Gross & John, 2003; Belden, Luby, Pagliaccio, & Barch, 2014; Belden, Pagliaccio, Murphy, Luby, & Barch, 2015; Webb et al., 2012).”

“Emotion dysregulation has been measured primarily with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004).”

“…efforts to orient away from the source of stress or one's emotions, including avoidance or denial) and emotional suppression (i.e., efforts to dampen internal or external experiences and/or expressions of emotion) have predicted higher levels of psychopathological symptoms (Compas et al. 2017).”

“Meta-analytic evidence shows that adolescents pivot from problem-focused tactics toward emotion-and meaning-focused strategies when control is low and resources have been stripped away (Compas et al., 2017; Masten & Narayan, 2012).”

“During these years, young people encounter a range of stressors, including social comparison, peer pressure, and identity exploration, which may increase vulnerability to psychological difficulties when coping resources are insufficient (Compas et al., 2017).”

“While adolescents develop a variety of skills to regulate emotions, cope with difficult experiences, and adapt to new environ - ments as they gain independence from parents [4, 5] , the naturalistic developmental course of skill development is unclear [6–8].”

“Adaptive strategy can promote mental health, interpersonal relationship and post-traumatic growth, while non-adaptive strategy can easily lead to depression, anxiety and other mental disorders [19].”

“Effective regulation of emotions during this period is essential for resilience, as adolescents who can balance their feelings are better prepared to cope with stress and adversity in adaptive ways [3].”

“…skillset for mental wellbeing, albeit not trivial to develop, as reflected in the increasing worldwide prevalence of mental health conditions [1, 13, 28, 61], as well as problematic behaviors [164] in a broad range of domains from physical activity and nutrition, to screen time or personal finance.”

“Unlike coping, which speci fi cally addresses a stressor, emotion regulation may occur in non-stressful situations, such as managing emotions evoked by a touching movie scene or a joyful event (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Research and theory have long underscored the strong interaction between stressors and mental health challenges (Compas et al., 2017).”

“…mediators because it (a) is malleable and demonstrably influenced by mindset inductions [18], (b) reflects emotion-regulation flexibility, a core component of effective stress adaptation [29], and (c) shows robust links to positive affect and well-being, including life satisfaction [27,35,36].”

“Coping can refer to conscious attempts to regulate stressful emotions (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Distraction-related activities can offer temporary psychological detachment from distressing stimuli or impart mood-enhancing advantages through participation in enjoyable, familiar routines (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Difficulties in this area have been linked to anxiety, depression, impulsivity, and substance use among Gen Z (Compas et al., 2017; Modecki et al., 2017).”

“The finding that younger participants were more likely to report ER difficulties may reflect normative age-related changes, as previous research shows ER abilities improve with maturity (Compas et al. 2017).”

“Chronic exposure to family abuse or school bullying often necessitates the development of adaptive mechanisms such as emotional desensitization, allowing individuals to gradually reduce sensitivity to psychological distress (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Effective ER relies on adaptive strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and emotional acceptance, whereas maladaptive approaches—e.g. suppression, avoidance, and rumination—are linked to psychological distress (Aldao et al., 2015; Compas et al., 2017; Cutuli, 2014; Easdale-Cheele et al., 2024).”

“One such risk factor is emotion regulation [13], individuals’ ability to influence their emotions, where emotions refer to temporally limited, positively or negatively valenced and situationally-bound experiences [14].”

“However, this heightened sensitivity might simultaneously open developmental pathways through which children may become more receptive to beneficial influences, such as warmth, support, and responsive caregiving (Compas et al., 2017; Ugarte et al., 2023).”

“Regarding coping styles, a multidimensional model for coping among childhood and adolescence (Compas et al., 2017) includes three coping factors of primary control engagement (e.g., problem-solving), secondary control engagement (e.g., positive thinking), and disengagement (e.g., avoidance).”

“Coping is defined by conscious and volitional efforts to regulate emotion, cognition, behavior, physiology, and the environment in response to stressful life events or circumstances [12], which is a significant predictor of mental health [13].”

“…the emotion regulation dif fi culties among individuals with muscle dysmorphia (Martenstyn et al., 2022; Murray et al., 2012), which aligns with research that has connected emotion regulation dif fi culties across psychopathology (Aldao et al., 2010; Compas et al., 2017; Sheppes et al., 2015).”

“…attributed to increased physical motion while viewing the clips, potentially signalling a lack of attentional control 71,85 and evolving emotional coping strategies 86 , we found no correlation between age and motion - as denoted by increased noise in ECG signal - in our sample of 8-15-year-olds.”

“For example, the results indicated that students in childhood and early adolescence have fewer cognitive emotion regulation strategies and have less control of their emotional expression than students in middle and late adolescence (Bell 2016; Compas et al. 2017).”

“Given that adolescence is a critical period for the onset of psychiatric disorders (Compas et al., 2017; McLaughlin et al., 2011; Rapee et al., 2019), difficulties in emotion regulation during this stage may increase vulnerability to substance use.”

“Emotional suppression is ineffective at down-regulating negative affect; serving to maintain sadness, fear, anger in the short-term, and increase risk for depression prospectively [38].”

“Some group coping into adaptive versus maladaptive (Compas et al., 2017).”

“The frequent appraisal of daily life events as threatening (or unmanageable) can additionally lead to more evasive general coping styles (e.g., denial, mental disengagement) with subsequent maladaptive well ‐ being outcomes (Compas et al. 2017).”

“Indeed, individuals with a history of childhood abuse may adopt avoidant strategies to cope with fear, associated with automatic negative thinking and mood distress (Compas et al. 2017; Milojevich et al. 2019).”

“To summarize, boarders spend more time with peers during a critical socialization phase, with less parental involvement, making peer effects on behaviors more significant (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies such as suppression, denial, catastrophizing and blaming others have been associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms, including anxiety (Compas et al., 2017; Garnefski & Kraaij, 2018).”

“…counsellors and psychologists in the tailoring of existing psychoeducational programs to specifically young students by promoting empowered appraisal along with the strengthening of coping skills (Anderson et al., 2024; Compas et al., 2017) in the face of daily, ambiguous social situations.”

“Evaluating emotion regulation is an important outcome as it is a transdi-agnostic risk factor relevant across many mental health difficulties [23] and as it is related to academic success [24, 25].”

“Intact cognitive functioning is a critical aspect of adaptive emotion and behavioral regulation (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Emotion regulation difficulties have been consistently associated with greater anxiety symptoms across the lifespan (Compas et al., 2017; Dry-man & Heimberg, 2018), and specifically in the adolescent period (Golombek et al., 2020; Schäfer et al., 2017).”

“In Japan, approximately 20% of early adolescents were found to exhibit a high drive for thinness, a core symptom of anorexia [6].”

“Specifically, based on documented differences in factors such as coping (Compas et al., 2017) we combined samples from across adolescence and emerging adulthood to be able to more fully capture whether developmental differences exist in patterns of cultural protective factors.”

“…difficulties with emotion regulation are implicated in a broad range of mental health conditions (e.g., Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010; Compas et al., 2017; Houben, Van Den Noortgate, & Kuppens, 2015; Miskowiak et al., 2019), as well as a variety of clinically relevant behaviors, such…”

“Studies have generally found that the use of voluntary engaged coping strategies is associated with better adjustment outcomes among children and adolescents than the use of voluntary disengaged coping strategies (Compas et al., 2001, 2017; Gagné & Melançon, 2013).”

“Beberapa hasil penelitian juga menunjukkan bahwa keterampilan regulasi emosi berhubungan dengan tingkah laku externalizing dan internalizing (Supplee et al., 2009; Lindsey, 2021; Compas et al., 2017).”

“In addition, recent meta-analyses have shown a negative association between childhood self-regulation and disruptive and aggressive behavior (externalizing problems) and negative emotions related to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts (internalizing problems) [6,7].”

“…or use of maladaptive ones, is associated with mental health disorders including mood, anxiety, substance use, and eating disorders (Berking & Whitley, 2014; Brockmeyer et al., 2014; Buckholdt et al., 2015; Compas et al., 2017; Gratz & Roemer, 2004; Mennin & Fresco, 2009; Weiss et al., 2013).”

“Coping strategies are closely link to emotion regulation during childhood and adolescence (Compas et al., 2017) and require the channeling of impulsivity, possibly through the executive processes involve in self-regulation (Nieto et al., 2020).”

“This body of literature suggests various coping methods, such as altering the situation, accepting it, seeking more information, or holding back from acting impulsively and in a counterproductive way (for a review see Compas et al., 2017).”

“As such, a better understanding of coping styles is essential to designing more effective interventions (Compas et al., 2017; Enumo et al., 2019).”

“…que principalmente se encuentre asociado con el ajuste psicológico (Keenan y Hipwell, 2005), teniendo en cuenta que esta regulación es un componente importante de las estrategias empleadas para afrontar la ansiedad social (Díaz-Castela et al., 2013) y los estresores vitales (Compas et al., 2017).”

“Similarly, temperamental factors such as emotional regulation and coping can play a role in psychopathology (Compas et al., 2017).”

“When poorly managed, these stressors are known to confer risk for poor mental health outcomes into adulthood (e.g., Compas et al., 2017).”

“Certain coping strategies can increase the risk of psychopathological disorders and psychopathology can also determine the use of a specific type of coping strategy [47].”

“Although the relation of cumulative risk to children’s adjustment is well researched, less is known about how it may contribute to children’s appraisal and coping over time (Compas et al., 2017).”

“To date, the field has predominantly relied on self- and parent-reports to broadly assess youth coping strategies as they relate to psychopathology (Compas et al., 2017).”

“It should be considered that coping strategies in youth are developed based on the demands of the environment and the resources to face them, which may change depending on the stage of adolescence [14, 19, 21].”

“Sa porastom životnih događaja, ali i dodatne nezavisnosti od roditelja, testiraće se psihološka ravnoteža adolescenata (Copeland et al. 2009), a novija istraživanja pokazuju da se stopa psihičkih poremećaja u toku adolescencije povećava (Compas et al., 2017; Deighton, 2019).”

“However, other factors such as depression, emotion regulation difficulties, self-esteem, attachment insecurity, family environment, and peer support may also explain this relationship [28].”

“Generally, active coping is related to fewer adjustment problems, and avoidant coping is associated with greater adjustment problems (Compas et al., 2017; Wadsworth et al., 2005; Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2010), although there are exceptions when faced with chronic or uncontrollable stressors…”

“On the other hand, disengagement coping is often considered maladaptive, as it involves actively avoiding or denying the stressor (Compas et al. 2017; Connor‐Smith et al. 2000).”

“Beyond academic pressures, students also encounter family conflicts, limited social support, and future-related anxiety, which increase emotional vulnerability and diminish psychological well-being [Compas et al., 2017; Madigan & Curran, 2024).”