Abstract
Introduction: Emotion regulation (ER) plays a crucial role in children and adolescents’ emotional well-being. However, the use of adaptive strategies often remains challenging during early adolescence, partly because cognitive functions that support adaptive ER, such as executive functions, are still developing. In addition, individual differences, such as temperament (positive and negative emotionality) and emotional awareness, play a key role in shaping how youth engage with ER strategies. This study investigated how temperament and emotional awareness are associated with the use of adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies in youth, and whether emotional awareness moderates these relationships.
Methods: In a cross-sectional design, 220 children and adolescents (age 8–15) from the general population completed self-report questionnaires measuring temperament, emotional awareness, and ER strategy use.
Results: Analyses revealed a significant interaction between negative emotionality and emotional awareness in predicting maladaptive ER strategies. Contrary to expectations, emotional awareness did not act as a consistent protective factor in youth: those high in both negative emotionality and emotional awareness still reported greater use of maladaptive strategies.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that emotional awareness plays a complex role in ER among youth with temperamental vulnerability. Rather than functioning as a uniformly protective factor, its influence appears to depend on emotional context and temperament.