The role of late adolescents' emotion regulation in the experience of COVID-19 lockdown: A longitudinal study

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic may be considered a unique mass-trauma experience. This study examined the relations between Italian late adolescents' emotion regulation strategies, their anxiety states, and their experience of the lockdown (in terms of discomfort related to restrictions, capacities to create new functional daily routines, and to find positive changes in one's own life) during the first wave of this pandemic. We analysed how participants' reports of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were associated with anxiety states during the 2020 Italian COVID-19 lockdown (large scale physical distancing and movement restrictions) and one month after the lockdown restrictions had been removed. We also examined how cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and anxiety states were linked to late adolescents' experience of lockdown. The participants were 497 Italian adolescents, aged from 17 to 24 years (Mage  = 21.11, SD = 1.83). A longitudinal structural equation modelling showed that emotion regulation strategies and anxiety states were not associated across time. Cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with routine reorganization and positive changes. In contrast, participants' expressive suppression was negatively related to their discomfort related to restrictions, ability to functionally reorganise their daily routine, and ability to find positive changes related to the COVID-19 emergency. Anxiety was positively linked to discomfort related to restrictions. The findings are discussed in light of the current literature related to emotion regulation and anxiety. Limitations and implications for practice are presented.