The Role of Emotion Regulation for General Self-Efficacy in Adolescents Assessed Through Both Neurophysiological and Self-Reported Measures

Natalie Marie Lande; Torvald F Ask; Sjur Skjørshammer Sætren; Ricardo Gregorio Lugo; Stefan Sütterlin

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S406702

The Role of Emotion Regulation for General Self-Efficacy in Adolescents Assessed Through Both Neurophysiological and Self-Reported Measures

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 Aug 25:16:3373-3383. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S406702. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Natalie Marie Lande^#¹, Torvald F Ask^#^{2

3}, Sjur Skjørshammer Sætren^#^{4

5}, Ricardo Gregorio Lugo^{2

3

6}, Stefan Sütterlin^{2

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Fontenehuset, Fredrikstad, Norway.
² Department of Health, Welfare and Organization, Østfold University College, Halden, Norway.
³ Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Gjøvik, Norway.
⁴ Department for Child and Adolescent Research, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ TIPS Centre for Clinical Research in Psychosis, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway.
⁶ Centre for Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia.
⁷ Faculty of Computer Science, Albstadt-Sigmaringen University, Sigmaringen, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability and capacity to organize and execute actions required to achieve desired results, is associated with adolescent academic achievement and reduced risk for psychopathology. Adolescent emotion regulation represents an important component in the relationship between self-efficacy and developmental outcomes, but the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. It is unclear how emotion regulation strategies, which change with experience, and emotion regulation capacity, which is largely determined by genetics, contribute to the development of self-efficacy.

Aim: The present study aims to explore the relationship between emotion regulation and self-efficacy in adolescents. We hypothesize that neurophysiological emotion regulation capacity moderates the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and self-efficacy.

Methods: The present study applied a cross-sectional design. A sample of high-school students (N = 45, n_female = 31, age = 17-18) provided answers on the General Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Vagal tone was used as an indicator for emotion regulation capacity.

Results: In the initial correlational analysis, reappraisal, but not expressive suppression nor vagal tone was associated with self-efficacy. Vagal tone was not associated with any self-report measures of emotion regulation or self-efficacy. Contrary to our hypothesis, vagal tone did not moderate the relationship between emotion regulation and self-efficacy.

Conclusion: This is the first study assessing the relationship between neurophysiological indicators of emotion regulation and self-efficacy. Our results do not indicate that vagal tone moderates the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and general self-efficacy. Future studies should also assess the possible influence of metacognition and interoception on relationships.

Keywords: adolescent self-efficacy; cognitive reappraisal; emotion regulation capacity; expressive suppression; self-efficacy development; vagally mediated heart rate variability.