The relation between emotion regulation strategies and physiological stress responses in middle childhood

The current study sought to examine whether children's spontaneous use of the emotion regulation strategies suppression and reappraisal during a psychosocial stress task was related to their cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to that task. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to a psychosocial stress task were assessed in 158 10-year-old children (83 girls). The children completed a self-report questionnaire measuring use of reappraisal and suppression during the task. Results showed overall increases in cortisol and alpha-amylase in response to the stressor, with higher cortisol reactivity in girls than in boys. With regard to emotion regulation, more use of suppression was related to lower cortisol reactivity in girls, and lower alpha-amylase reactivity and quicker alpha-amylase recovery in all children. The use of reappraisal was not related to the children's cortisol or alpha-amylase responses. The current study is the first to investigate the relation between the spontaneous use of reappraisal and suppression, and physiological stress responses to a psychosocial stressor in children. Our results indicate that reappraisal and suppression are used and can be measured even in 10-year-olds. At this age reappraisal appears ineffective at down-regulating physiological responses, while suppression was related to lower physiological responses. For cortisol reactivity there was a sex difference in the relation with suppression, indicating the importance of including sex as a moderator variable in research studying stress reactivity and its correlates in this age group.