Variety and Acceleration in Trajectory of Emotion Regulation Processes and Strategies for Sadness, Anger, Fear & Pain in Children: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this study was to examine a developmental model based on variety and acceleration in formation of the processes and strategies of emotion regulation for sadness, anger, fear and pain. Participants were one hundred eight children (age, 4- 12). A directive content analysis was used to gather data through individually standard interviews. Data were collected with semi-structured interviews and observation of children after presentation of emotional scenarios or encountering real situations generating emotion. Data were analysed based on coding the behaviours, sub-strategies, and emotion regulation processes for four emotions of sadness, fear, anger, and pain. Findings showed variety of emotion regulation processes and strategies in formation four emotions. Development of emotion regulation did not show an age-related different pathway for different emotions.