TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotion regulation strategy and its relationship with emotional dysregulation in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
T2 - behavioral and brain findings
AU - Liu, Qianrong
AU - Feng, Yuan
AU - Chen, Wai
AU - Zhu, Yu
AU - Preece, David A.
AU - Gao, Yuan
AU - Luo, Xiangsheng
AU - Dang, Chen
AU - Wang, Yufeng
AU - Sun, Li
AU - Liu, Lu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025.
PY - 2025/1/17
Y1 - 2025/1/17
N2 - Important associations between emotional dysregulation (ED) and ADHD have been identified in adults, with a key manifestation of this being differential use of emotion regulation strategies: reduced use of cognitive reappraisal (CR), but elevated expressive suppression (ES). These associations have been observed at both behavioral and neuroimaging levels. The present study aims to explore the use of CR and ES in children with ADHD, and their relationship to ED. 148 children with ADHD and 265 healthy controls (age 9–16 years) were recruited and evaluated and correlated their ED, CR, and ES. Resting-state fMRI functional connectivity, with 6 amygdala subregions as regions-of-interest, were analyzed in a subsample to identify potential neural correlates. Children with ADHD showed significant higher ED, and lower use of both CR and ES. A significant negative correlation was found between CR and ED. Mediation analysis indicated that CR has an indirect influence on the relationship between ADHD diagnosis and ED. In the neuroimaging analyses, the functional connectivity between the right superficial amygdala and left middle occipital gyrus showed a significant group-by-ES interaction, highlighting potential neural correlates for elevated ED in children with ADHD. Children with ADHD expressed elevated levels of ED, and used less CR and ES compared to healthy controls. The lower use of ES may relate to abnormal amygdala connectivity in children with ADHD. This finding suggested that brain immaturity in children may preclude effective deployment of ES in emotion regulation processes.
AB - Important associations between emotional dysregulation (ED) and ADHD have been identified in adults, with a key manifestation of this being differential use of emotion regulation strategies: reduced use of cognitive reappraisal (CR), but elevated expressive suppression (ES). These associations have been observed at both behavioral and neuroimaging levels. The present study aims to explore the use of CR and ES in children with ADHD, and their relationship to ED. 148 children with ADHD and 265 healthy controls (age 9–16 years) were recruited and evaluated and correlated their ED, CR, and ES. Resting-state fMRI functional connectivity, with 6 amygdala subregions as regions-of-interest, were analyzed in a subsample to identify potential neural correlates. Children with ADHD showed significant higher ED, and lower use of both CR and ES. A significant negative correlation was found between CR and ED. Mediation analysis indicated that CR has an indirect influence on the relationship between ADHD diagnosis and ED. In the neuroimaging analyses, the functional connectivity between the right superficial amygdala and left middle occipital gyrus showed a significant group-by-ES interaction, highlighting potential neural correlates for elevated ED in children with ADHD. Children with ADHD expressed elevated levels of ED, and used less CR and ES compared to healthy controls. The lower use of ES may relate to abnormal amygdala connectivity in children with ADHD. This finding suggested that brain immaturity in children may preclude effective deployment of ES in emotion regulation processes.
KW - ADHD
KW - Cognitive reappraisal
KW - Emotional dysregulation
KW - Emotional lability
KW - Expressive suppression
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85217158282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00787-025-02643-7
DO - 10.1007/s00787-025-02643-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 39821692
AN - SCOPUS:85217158282
SN - 1018-8827
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
JF - European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
ER -
