Interpersonal Emotion Regulation in Middle Childhood: From Cognitive Capacity to Context-Sensitive Regulation

Abstract

Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) requires individuals to understand another person’s emotional state and adapt regulatory decisions to interpersonal goals and situational demands. Across four linked studies, the present research examined age-related patterns, cognitive and social-cognitive correlates, contextual modulation, and individual differences in context sensitivity in children aged 8–10 years. IER was assessed using vignette-based strategy ratings, executive-function and social-cognitive measures, and experimental manipulations of regulatory goals and demands. Across the observed age range, increasing age was associated with greater cognitive and affective engagement and lower avoidance and co-rumination, whereas distraction and suppression showed no significant age associations. Executive function, empathy, and theory of mind were systematically associated with greater adaptive and lower maladaptive IER. Children also altered their regulatory decisions as social goals and regulatory demands changed. Person-by-context analyses showed selective effects: general cognitive-control capacity moderated responsiveness to regulatory goals, whereas social cognition moderated demand-related variation in cognitive engagement. Together, the findings suggest that IER in middle childhood involves not only developing regulatory capacities but also coordinating those capacities with the goals and demands of interpersonal situations.