Social Facilitation of Emotion Regulation in Adolescence

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Emotion Regulation

Treatments: Behavioral: Social regulation; Behavioral: Cognitive regulation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06458920

21-000929

R21HD108751 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this project is to test whether regulating emotions with help from a friend is more effective and long-lasting in adolescents than regulating alone, and to characterize age-related differences in the neural mechanisms supporting social versus cognitive emotion regulation. Participants will complete a psychology experiment while undergoing fMRI scanning.

Full description

Participants will complete a novel paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether adolescents (N = 50) and adults (N = 50) are more effective at down-regulating negative affect when a friend provides them with reinterpretations of negative stimuli (i.e. social reappraisal), as compared to when they reinterpret stimuli alone (i.e., cognitive reappraisal). Specifically, participants will look at pictures of upsetting events while undergoing fMRI scanning. For some pictures, they will be instructed to just look at the image. For other pictures, they will be told to listen to their friend's voice as their friend helps them to regulate their emotions. For other pictures, they will be told to regulate their emotions on their own. The primary comparison of interest is how participants regulate emotion on their own versus when their friend helps them.

Enrollment: 100 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adolescent participants must be 13-15 year of age
• Adult participants must be 20-25 years of age
• Proficient in English

Exclusion criteria

• Auditory, visual or cognitive impairment
• Any health conditions that are contraindicated for MRI

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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100 participants in 2 patient groups

Social regulation

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will regulate emotion with the help of a friend

Treatment:

Behavioral: Social regulation

Cognitive regulation

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will regulate emotion on their own

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive regulation