DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-3-379-387

Cognitive regulation of emotions and attitude towards health in adolescence

Anna Yu. Ulanova
Ph.D. in Psychology, Researcher Researcher of the Laboratory
of Developmental Psychology of the Subject
in the Normal and Post-traumatic States

Institute of Psychology of Russian Academy of Sciences,
13, Yaroslavskaya str., Moscow, 129366, Russia;
e-mail: rachugina@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0326-6774

Cognitive regulation of emotions and attitude towards health are investigated as internal psychological mechanisms of teenagers’ adaptation to changes in their own personality and new demands of the social environment. We assume that the peculiarities of emotional regulation are a subjective factor in psychological health, because they determine adaptive abilities and resistance to stressful situations and contribute to the fulfillment of age tasks by the adolescent. The emotional development of adolescents is compared to indicators of somatic health and a subjective attitude towards it, as the most important quality of life indicators. The results of the study’s first stage, where a sample of 30 participants 15–16 years old shows the specifics of using strategies for the regulation of emotions and certain aspects of attitude towards health are presented. In general, adolescents are dominated by effective regulation strategies though among the destructive ones the most prominent are the strategies of accusing oneself for what has happened and an obsessive return to thoughts about an event. Effective strategies of emotional regulation correlate with somatic health: participants who are inclined to plan and search for a positive meaning in the occurred event have higher health indicators and agree that health does not limit them in different areas of life (study, communication with friends, hobby and so forth). Adolescents with a prominent emotional relationship to health are more likely to reduce the significance of the event by comparing it with other situations, and participants with a prominent interest in health issues more often demonstrate the ability to find a positive meaning in the event. These relationships have demonstrated the importance of adaptive abilities in the development of a teenager’s healthy personality. In general, the results meet the public demand for identifying the indicators of the psychological health of the adolescent population in the country. Moreover, the results provide arguments in favor of the fact that the cognitive regulation of emotions individual style can serve as an indicator of psychological well-being and the basis for psychological help to children.

Keywords: psychological health, quality of life, cognitive regulation of emotions, emotional regulation, attitude towards health, healthy lifestyle, adolescence.

References

Berezovskaya, R.A. (2012). Otnoshenie k zdorov’yu kak psikhologicheskiy mekhanizm samoupravleniya zdorovoy lichnosti [Attitude to health as a psychological mechanism of self-management of a healthy personality]. Zdorovaya lichnost’: materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii [Healthy personality: proc. of the international scientific-practical conference]. Saint-Petersburg, pp. 20–23.

Blyum, V.V. (2011). Struktura vnutrenney kartiny zdorov’ya u shkol’nikov: dis. ... kand. psikhol. nauk [The structure of the internal picture of health in schoolchildren: Ph.D. Thesis]. Saint-Petersburg, 258 p.

Dubrovina, I.V. (2015). Psikhologicheskoe zdorov’e lichnosti v kontekste vozrastnogo razvitiya [Psychological health of a person in the context of age development]. Razvitie lichnosti [Development of Personality]. No. 2, pp. 67–95.

Garnefski, N., Koopman, H., Kraaij, V. and ten Cate, R. (2009). Brief report: Cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological adjustment in adolescents with a chronic disease. Journal of Adolescence. Vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 449–454. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.01.003

Garnefski, N. and Kraaij, V. (2018). Specificity of relations between adolescents’ cognitive emotion regulation strategies and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Cognition and Emotion. Vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 1401–1408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.1232698

Garnefski, N., Kraaij, V. and Spinhoven, P. (2002). Manual for the use of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Leiderdorf: DATEK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/t03801-000

Garnefski, N., Kraaij, V. and van Etten, M. (2005). Specificity of relations between adolescents’ cognitive emotion regulation strategies and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Journal of Adolescence. Vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 619–631. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2004.12.009

Huhlaeva, O.V. (2001). Formirovanie psikhologicheskogo zdorov’ya mladshikh shkol’nikov: dis. ... d-ra ped. nauk [Formation of the psychological health of younger students: D.Sc. Thesis]. Moscow, 299 p.

Kislitsyna, O.A. (2011). Determinanty zdorov’ya podrostkov v Rossii [Determinants of adolescent health in Russia]. Sotsial’nye aspekty zdorov’ya naseleniya [Social Aspects of Population Health]. No. 3(19). Available at: http://vestnik.mednet.ru/content/view/311/30/lang,ru/ (accessed 18.07.2019).

Kolkova, S.M. and Gorbunova, L.N. (2012). Psikhologicheskaya bezopasnost’ kak uslovie sokhraneniya i ukrepleniya psikhologicheskogo zdorov’ya [Psychological safety as a condition for the preservation and strengthening of psychological health]. Psikhologicheskoe zdorov’e cheloveka: zhiznennyy resurs i zhiznennyy potentsial: materialy Vserossiyskoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii [Psychological health of the person: life resource and life potential: proc. of the International scientific and practical conference]. Krasnoyarsk: Verso Publ., pp. 140–146.

Lebedeva, N.M., Tatarko, A.N., Chirkov, V.I. and Lyu, C. (2007). Kul’turno-psikhologicheskie osobennosti otnosheniya k zdorov’yu u russkikh i kitayskikh studentov [Cultural and psychological peculiarities of attitude to health among Russian and Chinese students]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [Psychological Journal]. Vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 64–74.

Lebedeva, O.V. and Fomina, N.V. (2014). Otnoshenie k somaticheskomu zdorov’yu kak pokazatel’ razvitiya psikhologicheskogo zdorov’ya lichnosti (na materiale izucheniya razlichnykh vozrastnykh grupp ispytuemykh) [Attitude to somatic health as an indicator of the development of a person’s psychological health (based on the study of different age groups of subjects)]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo. Seriya: Sotsial’nye nauki [Vestnik of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod. Series: Social Sciences]. Vol. 4(36), pp. 150–158.

Miroshnichenko, A.A and Merzlyakova, D.R. (2017). Regional’naya strategiya sokhraneniya i ukrepleniya psikhologicheskogo zdorov’ya uchastnikov obrazovatel’nykh otnosheniy [Regional strategy of preservation and strengthening of the psychological health of participants of educational relations]. Psikhologo-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya [Psychological Science and Education]. Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 44–53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2017090105

Padun, M.A. (2015). Vliyanie protsessov regulyatsii emotsiy na psikhologicheskoe zdorov’e [The influence of emotion regulation processes on the mental health]. Zhurnal Prakticheskoy Psikhologii i Psikhoanaliza [Journal of Practical Psychology and Psychoanalysis]. No. 4. Available at: https://psyjournal.ru/articles/vliyanie-processov-regulyacii-emociy-na-psihologicheskoe-zdorove (accessed 18.07.2019).

Rasskazova, E.I., Leonova, A.B. and Pluzhnikov, I.V. (2011). Razrabotka russkoyazychnoy versii oprosnika kognitivnoy regulyatsii emotsiy [Development of the Russian version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 14. Psikhologiya [[The Moscow University Herald. Series 14. Psychology].]. No. 4, pp. 161–179.

Sergienko, E.A. (2017). Psikhologicheskoe zdorov’e: sub’ektivnye faktory [Psychological health. Subjective factors]. Vestnik RGGU. Seriya «Psikhologiya. Pedagogika. Obrazovanie» [RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. «Psychology. Pedagogics. Education» Series]. No. 4(10), pp. 98–117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6398-2017-4-98-117

Vlasova, N.V. (2017). Osobennosti regulyatsii emotsiy v podrostkovom vozraste (na primere vospitannikov kadetskoy shkoly-internata) [Features of emotional regulation in adolescence (with the example of students of cadet boarding school)]. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie [Psychological-Educational Studies]. Vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 70–83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2017090207

Received 30.07.2019

For citation:

Ulanova A.Yu. Cognitive regulation of emotions and attitude towards health in adolescence // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2019. Iss. 3. P. 379–387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-3-379-387