The Developmental Course of Regulation Capacity from Middle Childhood to Adolescence

消极情绪和积极情绪的体验是人类生活中不可避免的一部分，而监控和管理情绪体验的能力，即所谓的情绪调节，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，但我们仍然不能确切地了解这些调节过程是如何在整个童年期间发挥作用和发展的。特别是，在儿童至青春期中期发展阶段缺乏研究是有问题的，因为过渡到青春期的特点是唤醒和压力经历以及青春期引起的生理变化的显著发展变化。 这项拟议的研究将考察从童年中期到青春期的青少年自主神经系统活动的稳定性及其对情绪生物行为调节的功能影响。这项研究还将检验一个被认为与调节情绪粒度(即识别情绪之间细微差别的能力)密切相关的结构。这些目标将共同形成青少年在关键发展阶段的规范情绪调节的综合模式。为了实现这些目标，两组年轻人(第一组：7至9岁和第二组：11-13岁)将参观实验室，参与一系列既定的任务，在此期间将收集对行为、自主神经系统活动(即心率变异性和皮肤电导水平)和自我情绪评级的实时观察。然后，对青年进行纵向跟踪，以测量生物行为情绪调节的发展过程。最后，将在年轻人的自然环境中通过让年轻人连续10天佩戴创新的Empatica E4腕带来检验真实生活中情绪和生理的日常变化。这个腕带获取生理信号，并将阐明生理功能、调节和情绪粒度之间微妙的相互作用。 这一研究计划对青年情感科学领域的理论和方法论都有很大的贡献。这些发现将为关于影响情绪激活/调节的背景因素以及自愿/非自愿地部署调节策略的额外工作奠定基础。拟议的方法组合是相当创新的，对自然科学做出了贡献，并将影响跨学科和转化性研究。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，使他们能够从事各种研究工作，并可能成为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.