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Updated: Aug 5, 2026

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Fixed emotion mindsets and responses to negative emotions: Importance of cognitive flexibility
Erin E Wood1, Rebekah B Clapham1, Wendy Troop-Gordon2
1Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Abstract:
The reciprocal pathways between fixed emotion mindsets (FEMs) and responses to negative emotions were examined across three timepoints in a prospective, school-based intervention study of 284 adolescents (119 girls; Mage = 15.38; 48.9% boys; 67.49% non-White) across the 2022-2023 school year. Total-effect models revealed FEMs predicted significantly more disengagement and involuntary dysregulation; indirect-effect models revealed that FEMs predicted significantly lower proactive engagement and higher cognitive avoidance via lower cognitive flexibility. Results also revealed that cognitive flexibility predicted significantly lower FEMs, and involuntary dysregulation predicted marginally higher FEMs. These results highlight the importance of mindsets in the development of effective emotion regulation and identify one potential mechanism that may underlie this link. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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