Relations of Emotion Regulation and Personality with Anxiety and Depression in Children

The aim of this study was to propose and analyze two models of associations to explain the relationships between Extraversion and Neuroticism traits, emotional regulation strategies cognitive reappraisal (CR) and suppression of emotional expression (SEE) and anxiety and depression in children 9 to 12 years old. For this, 230 children of both genders of those ages were evaluated in these variables and the models were compared by Path Analysis. The results showed that CR presented a total mediating effect on the relationship of Extraversion with anxiety, which was not observed for depression. The SEE submitted a partial mediating effect on the relationship of Neuroticism with anxiety and depression. These results have value to expand the knowledge available about the effect of these traits on clinical symptomatology which is useful for the prevention and treatment planning as well as for such an effect is through strategies that are themselves modifiable and/ or trainable what constitutes an contribution for the design and content of children’s mental health programs.