تنظیم احساسات و نشانه های افسردگی: بررسی اثرات واسطه ای ارتباط مدرسه در اواخر نوجوانان چینی

Abstract This study tested Gross's process model of emotion regulation in a Chinese adolescent sample. It hypothesized that emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) would predict adolescents' perception of school connectedness and depressive symptoms. It also posited that school connectedness may be a possible mediator between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Participants were 504 adolescents aged 16–18 from two Chinese public upper secondary schools. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that reappraisal and suppression significantly associated with school connectedness and depressive symptoms, and school connectedness mediated the link between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms, even when the general emotion experiences were controlled. Although boys unexpectedly reported higher level depressive symptoms, the hypothesized model was invariant across gender except for the link between suppression and depressive symptoms. These findings demonstrate that it is meaningful to involve both emotion regulation processes and school connectedness in explaining adolescent depressive symptoms.

Introduction Depression is a prevalent affective disorder. It has been associated with high risk for suicidal behavior, poor educational attainment, and other adolescent health problems (Fletcher, 2008 and Keenan-Miller et al., 2007). Acknowledging that adolescent depression is rarely the result of a single risk factor (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998), remarkable progress has been made in explaining the development of depression, especially from the socio-emotional perspective. It is worth mentioning that a recent meta-analysis highlighted the particular contribution of emotion regulation processes to depressive psychopathology (Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010). Emotion regulation processes unfold along emotional response tendencies to social cues, which may affect individuals' social adaptation in various contexts (Gross & John, 2003). As for adolescents, they spend many hours in educational contexts with peers and teachers, who may exert a large influence on adolescents' social relationships by presenting acceptance, care, closeness, and support (Huberty, 2012, chap. 4). “The extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” was the definition of school belonging provided by Goodenow (1993, p. 80), often used also as the definition of “school connectedness” (see Millings et al., 2012 and Shochet et al., 2006). Such psychological “school connectedness” or “school membership” ( Wehlage, 1989) is developed through the reciprocal social connections between the student and others in the school and represents the quality of school social relationships ( Goodenow, 1993). Therefore, as an indicator of social adjustment in educational contexts, school connectedness may also be affected by the emotion regulation processes. Although studies aimed at examining the social outcomes of emotion regulation exist (e.g., Gross & John, 2003), little attention has been given to understanding the ways in which emotion regulation processes may connect to adolescents' perception of school connectedness. Moreover, school connectedness has been recently identified as a potential protective factor of adolescents' depressive symptoms (Millings et al., 2012 and Shochet et al., 2006). Due to the evidenced associations between emotion regulation processes and depressive outcomes, it appears that school connectedness may act as a possible mediator between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, to the author's knowledge, there are no studies which have focused on examining the relationship between adolescent emotion regulation, experiences of school connectedness, and depressive symptoms simultaneously. Meanwhile, because the significant findings regarding the way in which emotion regulation predicts social and depressive outcomes mainly came from Western adult samples, obtaining evidence from eastern adolescent samples is also desirable. The main aim of this study was therefore (a) to examine whether emotion regulation processes would significantly associate with depressive symptoms and school connectedness; (b) to test whether school connectedness would negatively predict depressive symptoms; and (c) to test whether school connectedness would be a possible mediator of the link between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms using a Chinese late adolescent sample. Emotion regulation and depression Emotion regulation can be understood as the process whereby we manage our own emotions (Koole, 2009). Two well-examined processes or strategies in current literature are cognitive reappraisal (reappraisal) and expressive suppression (suppression), which were developed based on Gross, 1998a and Gross, 2001). Reappraisal as a form of antecedent-focused strategy refers to giving a new personal meaning to an emotion-eliciting situation, which could alter eliciting emotions. For example, when people want to reduce the experience of negative emotions (such as sadness or anger), they may change what they are thinking about ( Gross & John, 2003). Suppression is a form of response modulation which involves suppressing ongoing emotion-expressive behaviors. For example, some people control their emotions by not expressing them ( Gross & John, 2003). These two strategies functioning in different emotion regulation stages may result in different affective, cognitive, and social consequences ( Butler et al., 2003, Gross, 1998b, Gross and John, 2003, Gross and Levenson, 1995 and Richard and Gross, 2000). Reappraisal has often been discussed as having advantageous outcomes or lower costs in the adaptation process, while suppression has negative outcomes. Depressive symptoms as detrimental outcomes of unsuccessful emotion regulation have been widely investigated by researchers from different areas. Gross and John (2003) found that suppressors reported more symptoms of depression than reappraisers across three depression measures. In a recent meta-analysis focusing on cross-sectional studies, suppression was positively associated with depressive disorder while reappraisal was negatively associated; the presence of suppression was associated with higher depression vulnerability than the absence of reappraisal (Aldao et al., 2010). Betts, Gullone, and Allen (2009) conducted a correlational study regarding relations between emotion regulation and adolescent depressive symptoms and concluded that the habitual use of expressive suppression may serve as a risk factor for symptoms of depression whilst reappraisal may be a protective factor. Due to the higher risk of depression across adolescence (Merikangas et al., 2010), it is reasonable to expect a significant association between emotion regulation (suppression and reappraisal) and the depressive symptoms among late adolescents. Social outcomes of emotion regulation Given that reappraisal changes concurrent emotions and suppression inhibits emotional expressive behaviors, the use of these strategies would probably interfere with social interaction and lead to consequent reactions in other people (Gross, 2001). The question of what consequences reappraisal and suppression might have for social functioning was tested initially in a cross-sectional study by Gross and John (2003) using undergraduate samples. Results indicated that suppressors are less likely to experience positive emotions than reappraisers; suppression negatively predicted social support and peer-rated relationship closeness, whereas reappraisal positively predicted peer-rated relationship closeness and likeability. Although the social benefits for reappraisal are not distinct in every aspect, the social costs of suppression are evident. A similar proposal regarding the social effects of reappraisal and suppression on interpersonal communication has been tested experimentally, arguing that suppression may disrupt communication, decrease responsiveness, and inhibit relationship formation in social interaction (Butler et al., 2003). Recently, Srivastava, Tamir, McGonigal, John, and Gross (2009) reported that suppression (reappraisal was not included) could predict low social connection (social support, peer status, social satisfaction) before and during the transition from high school to the first term in college. A longitudinal study also provided evidence for the link between suppression and poorer social functioning in a sample of college students from the perspective of social connection and added that reappraisal could significantly improve students' social connection (English, John, Srivastava, & Gross, 2012). Because students have extensive social connection with others in schools, we proposed that the habitual use of reappraisal should relate positively to adolescent students' school connectedness, but that habitual suppression may have a negative relation to school connectedness. School connectedness as a mediator School connectedness is widely connected with school-based adaptive outcomes during adolescence. The happy, comfortable experiences of school connectedness have been positively connected with adolescents' motivated behavior, self-concept, academic success, enhanced social and emotional development, and well-being (Cook et al., 2012 and Deci et al., 1991; Goodenow, 1993; Walton and Cohen, 2011 and Wehlageg, 1989). The lack of school connectedness predicts dropout, low academic performance, high risk behaviors, and poor mental health (Baumeister and Leary, 1995, Bond et al., 2007, Cook et al., 2012, Finn, 1989, Millings et al., 2012, Resnick et al., 1997 and Shochet et al., 2006). For instance, Anderman (2002) found out that school connectedness was negatively related to depressive symptoms in adolescents from grade 7 to 12. This reverse relationship was also reported in other cross-sectional and longitudinal studies using adolescent samples (Bond et al., 2007, Kia-Keating and Ellis, 2007, Millings et al., 2012 and Shochet et al., 2006). It is therefore expected that school connectedness would have a negative association with depressive symptoms in the current sample. Although school connectedness is critical to adolescent mental health, it is still an underexplored area (Shochet et al., 2006). Regarding the mediating role of school connectedness, previous studies have demonstrated that reappraisal and suppression have a significant relation to adolescents' social connection and symptoms of depression (Aldao et al., 2010, Butler et al., 2003, English et al., 2012 and Gross and John, 2003). Meanwhile, school connectedness, representing students' social connection in schools, is a strong protective factor of adolescents' depressive symptoms (Millings et al., 2012 and Shochet et al., 2006). So the rationale for the hypothesis regarding school connectedness as a mediator between emotion regulation (reappraisal and suppression) and depressive symptoms is supported. Focus on Chinese adolescents A recent review study has revealed that about 10%–50% of Chinese children and adolescents from different regions suffer from depression (Zgambo, Kalembo, He, & Wang, 2012). In several studies, the prevalence rates of depression were higher in Chinese adolescents than those in Western societies (Chan, 1995, Sunita et al., 1999 and Tepper et al., 2008). Cultural backgrounds probably have an influence on the prevalence of depression, because they can influence how we view and regulate our emotions (Matsumoto et al., 2008; Tsai & Levenson, 1997). Former studies have argued that Asian culture encourages individuals to suppress their emotions more than Western culture (Eng, 2012 and English and John, 2012, Octorber 8; Tsai & Levenson, 1997). In traditional Chinese culture, suppressing personal desires and emotional expressions appropriately in various circumstances is a social norm which people have to learn (Liu, 2011; Potter, 1988). As such, Chinese adolescents are very likely taught to suppress their emotional expressions or to display appropriate emotions. Consistent with this cultural expectation, adolescents holding Chinese cultural values may suppress their emotional expressive behaviors more often in daily lives than those with Western or American values. Although the Chinese believe that self-experienced emotions are irrelevant to maintain social order and are not important in social life (Potter, 1988), it is unclear how much the cultural affirmation of habitual suppression could moderate the effects of suppression on adolescents' social functioning and depressive symptoms. Past literature has documented some weaker associations between suppression and social adjustment for people with Asian values rather than Western or American values (Butler et al., 2007, Cui et al., 2012 and English and John, 2012, Octorber 8; Kwon, Yoon, Joormann, & Kwon, 2013). The present study In summary, we hypothesized that there are significant associations between adolescent emotion regulation, school connectedness, and depressive symptoms, and school connectedness would mediate the link between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Moreover, this study tested whether the above mentioned associations are equivalent across gender. Finally, these hypotheses were tested on Chinese late adolescents using a structural equation modeling approach.

Conclusion Our findings suggest that both reappraisal and suppression strategies are strong predictors of Chinese adolescents' depressive symptoms although cultural values may probably modify these associations. In comparison to emotion regulation, school connectedness is a stronger factor in predicting depressive symptoms and could well be a mediator behind the effect of emotion regulation on depressive symptoms. Future research could apply a longitudinal approach to observe the suggested model over time, or to apply this model to a cross-cultural comparison study. School-based interventions focusing on reducing adolescent depressive symptoms may benefit from current findings by emphasizing the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies like reappraisal and less maladaptive strategies like suppression, building concerned learning communities to enhance students' school connectedness, and paying particular attention to the habitual use of suppression in late male adolescents to lessen their sufferance of distress experiences.