Resilience in Adolescents: The Role of Parental and Adolescent Emotion Regulation

Abstract

Resilience is the quality that helps individuals cope in the face of adversity by maintaining emotional wellbeing. During the growing years, parents play a valuable role in instilling the skills required for becoming resilient. The present study thus aims to examine the relationship between the emotion regulation strategies of parents and adolescents and the resilience of adolescents. Two hundred and four adolescents (aged between 13-19 years) were assessed on ERQ-CA, CDRISC-HA, while parents filled out ERQ. The analysis of correlation revealed that cognitive reappraisal used by the trio (adolescent, mother, and father) correlated positively and significantly with resilience; however, expressive suppression of any of the members of the trio failed to correlate with resilience. Since the demography of individuals plays a major role in one’s abilities, hierarchical regression was applied to control the effect of demography in relation to emotion regulation abilities and resilience. After controlling for demographic variables, a mother’s use of cognitive reappraisal emerged as the most significant predictor of adolescents’ resilience, supported by the adolescent’s own cognitive reappraisal. These findings suggest that mothers, along with adolescents who have the ability to reinterpret any emotion inducing situation, may reduce the negative impact of emotions and make them more resilient. It is thus, indicated that such relations may be accounted for by the emotion socialisation process and observational learning.