Emotional Clarity and Emotion Regulation Study

What are we doing and why?

Depressive and anxiety disorders (internalizing disorders) are often debilitating, functionally impairing, and increase in prevalence during adolescence. Negative Affect, reflecting a propensity to experience negative emotions (e.g., sadness, anger, and anxiety), hallmarks internalizing disorders, and may presage their occurrence when experienced at increased levels in the daily lives of adolescents.

Emotion regulation (ER), or the volitional and automatic efforts to modulate the temporal course, intensity, or morphology of an emotional response, has been implicated in the experience of Negative Affect and internalizing disorder risk. Growing evidence points to an individual's internal and external environments as important contexts for ER's success. How clearly one understands the nature of one's distress may be one such context.

This study aims to clarify the role of how clearly adolescents understand their emotional states before engaging in ER responses in both the use and outcomes of said responses in their daily lives. We are seeking 12-17-year-old adolescents' and their parents' help! 

What will I be asked to do?

The parent (or legal gaurdian) and adolescent participant will individually complete:

1. a brief interview with research team members
2. online surveys
3. check-ins on their phone 5 times per day for 8-days [adolescents only]

Participation in the study is completely remote and you will be compensated $90 for you time. If you are 18 years old or older, please contact us by phone (216-687-4576) or email (merlab@csuohio.edu) to learn more about the study or to get involved.

Research Team

• Emma Church - Student Principal Investigator- 216-687-4576 - merlab@csuohio.edu
• Dr. Yaroslavsky - Co-Principal Investigator - 216-687-9273 - i.yaroslavsky@csuohio.edu
• Leah Kehler - Research Assistant - 216-687-4576 - merlab@csuohio.edu