The Developmental Course of Regulation Capacity from Middle Childhood to Adolescence

消极和积极情绪的体验是人类生存不可避免的一部分，而监控和管理情绪体验的能力，即情绪调节，是至关重要的。尽管我们对情绪调节的理解最近取得了进展，但这些调节过程在整个童年时期是如何发挥作用和发展的，仍有待了解。特别是，在童年中期到青春期的发展时期，研究的缺乏是有问题的，因为青春期的过渡是以觉醒和压力的经历以及青春期引起的生理变化的显著发展变化为标志的。本研究将探讨自主神经系统活动的稳定性及其对青少年情绪生物行为调节的功能影响。该研究还将研究一个与调节密切相关的结构——情绪粒度（即识别情绪之间细微差别的能力）。总之，这些目标将为青少年在一个重要的发展时期的规范性情绪调节的综合模型提供信息。为了实现这些目标，两组青少年（队列1：年龄7 - 9岁，队列2：年龄11-13岁）将访问实验室，并参与一系列完善的任务，在此过程中，将收集行为、自主神经系统活动（即心率变异性和皮肤电导水平）和情绪自我评分的实时观察。然后，对青少年进行纵向随访，观察其生物行为情绪调节的发展历程。最后，通过让青少年连续10天佩戴创新的Empatica E4腕带，我们将在青少年的自然环境中检测现实生活中情绪和生理的日常变化。这款腕带可以获取生理信号，并将揭示生理功能、调节和情绪粒度之间微妙的相互作用。本研究项目在青少年情感科学的理论和方法上都有很大的发展潜力。研究结果将为进一步研究影响情绪激活/调节的环境因素以及调节策略的自愿/非自愿部署奠定基础。提出的方法组合是相当创新的，有助于自然科学，并将影响跨学科和转化研究。还应该指出的是，拟议的研究将为学生提供丰富的HQP培训机会，在各种研究工作中，并可能形成他们作为学者和研究人员发展的基础。

The experience of negative and positive emotions is an inevitable part of the human existence, and the ability to monitor and manage emotional experiences, known as emotion regulation, is of central importance. Despite recent advances in our understanding of emotion regulation, it remains to be understood exactly how these regulatory processes function and develop throughout childhood. In particular, the scarcity of research during the middle childhood-to-adolescence developmental period is problematic because the transition to adolescence is marked by significant developmental changes in experiences of arousal and stress and physiological changes due to puberty. The proposed research will examine the stability of autonomic nervous system activity and its functional impact on the biobehavioural regulation of emotion in youth spanning middle childhood to adolescence. The research will also examine a construct proposed to be closely related to regulation - emotion granularity (i.e., the ability to identify nuanced distinctions between emotions). Together, these objectives will inform integrated models of normative emotion regulation in youth during an essential developmental period. To achieve these aims, two cohorts of youths (cohort 1: ages 7 to 9 and cohort 2: ages 11-13) will visit the laboratory and participate in a range of well-established tasks designed during which real-time observations of behaviour, autonomic nervous system activity (i.e., heart rate variability and skin conductance level), and self-ratings of emotion will be collected. Then, youth will be followed longitudinally to measure the developmental course of biobehavioural emotion regulation. Finally, real-life, day-to-day variation in emotion and physiology will be examined in youth's natural environment by having youth wear the innovative Empatica E4 wristband during 10 consecutive days. This wristband acquires physiological signals and will shed light on the nuanced interplay between physiological functioning, regulation and emotion granularity. This research program has great potential to contribute significantly to both theory and methodology in the field of youth emotion science. Findings will set the stage for additional work on contextual factors impacting emotion activation/regulation and on the voluntary/involuntary deployment of regulation strategies. The proposed combination of methodologies is quite innovative, contributes to the natural sciences, and stands to affect interdisciplinary and translational research. It should also be noted that the proposed research will offer students rich opportunities for HQP training in varied research endeavors and is likely to form the foundation of their development as academics and researchers.