Relationship between depression and cognitive reappraisal in 8-12 years old children: the mediating role of attention bias toward sad expression

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00025

Abstract

Abstract:

To explore the relationship between depression and cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation strategies of school-age children aged 8-12 years and its mechanism. Study 1: Questionnaire and behavioral experiment were used to investigate the effect of children's depression on the tendency and ability to use cognitive reappraisal. In Study 2, combined with eye movement techniques, the mediating role of attention bias to emotional information in the relationship between children's depression and cognitive reappraisal was investigated. The results showed that: (1) there was a significant negative correlation between depression and children's cognitive reappraisal tendency; (2) depression had a significant impact on the reappraisal effect of children's downward regulation of negative emotions; (3) difficulties in disengaging attention from sad faces mediated the association between depression and cognitive reappraisal tendency.

Key words: children, depression, the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal, the ability to use cognitive reappraisal, attention bias to sad faces

ZHANG Ni, LIU Wen, LIU Fang, GUO Xin. (2022). Relationship between depression and cognitive reappraisal in 8-12 years old children: the mediating role of attention bias toward sad expression. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 54(1), 25-39.

Figures/Tables 13

References 66

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Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4
1 gender	1.48	0.50	1
2 age	10.09	1.21	-0.02	1
3 depression	13.79	8.44	-0.13^**	-0.03	1
4 the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal	30.15	6.92	0.04	-0.10^*	-0.27^***	1
5 anxiety	22.19	13.14	0.08	0.05	0.51^***	-1.12^*

Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4
1 gender	1.48	0.50	1
2 age	10.09	1.21	-0.02	1
3 depression	13.79	8.44	-0.13^**	-0.03	1
4 the tendency to use cognitive reappraisal	30.15	6.92	0.04	-0.10^*	-0.27^***	1
5 anxiety	22.19	13.14	0.08	0.05	0.51^***	-1.12^*

Regression equation		Significance of regression coefficient			Overall fitting index
	Predictive variable	Beta	t	p	R	R²	∆ R²
Model 1	Gender	0.04	0.94	0.350	0.16	0.026
	Age	-0.10	-2.21	0.028
	Anxiety	-0.13	-2.70	0.007
Model 2	Gender	-0.01	-0.13	0.899	0.29	0.084	0.058
	Age	-0.10	-2.32	0.021
	Anxiety	0.02	0.46	0.644
	Depression	-0.29	-5.35	<0.001

Regression equation		Significance of regression coefficient			Overall fitting index
	Predictive variable	Beta	t	p	R	R²	∆ R²
Model 1	Gender	0.04	0.94	0.350	0.16	0.026
	Age	-0.10	-2.21	0.028
	Anxiety	-0.13	-2.70	0.007
Model 2	Gender	-0.01	-0.13	0.899	0.29	0.084	0.058
	Age	-0.10	-2.32	0.021
	Anxiety	0.02	0.46	0.644
	Depression	-0.29	-5.35	<0.001

Grouping	Mean age of each group M (SD)	Total number (Male/Female)	Depression score M (SD)	Anxiety score M (SD)
High depression group	9.77 (1.05)	37 (25/12)	23.84 (3.92)	14.60 (6.40)
Low depression group	10.07 (1.22)	39 (20/19)	3.81 (2.35)	15.30 (5.84)
t / c²	-1.17	3.88	27.15^***	-0.49