Neuroscientific Approaches to the Study of Self and Social Emotion Regulation During Development

Abstract

Emotion regulation is a critical skill that promotes physical and mental health across the lifespan. This chapter describes the neural networks that underlie emotion regulation, and explores how these networks develop during childhood and adolescence. We consider two forms of emotion regulation: self-regulation and social regulation. While developmental theories suggest that parents socially regulate their children’s emotions so as to scaffold burgeoning self-regulation abilities, little neuroscience work has considered the development of self- and social regulation together. Here, we address this gap in the literature by describing what is known about the neurodevelopment of self- and social regulation of emotions separately, and by discussing how they might inform one another. Given that little developmental neuroimaging research has examined social regulation, we draw inferences from adjacent research areas including social regulation of stress physiology. Finally, we provide suggestions for future developmental neuroscience work on self and social emotion regulation.