Social Facilitation of Emotion Regulation in Adolescence

July 14, 2026 updated by: Jennifer Silvers, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
The goal of this project is to test whether regulating emotions with help from a friend is more effective and long-lasting in adolescents than regulating alone, and to characterize age-related differences in the neural mechanisms supporting social versus cognitive emotion regulation. Participants will complete a psychology experiment while undergoing fMRI scanning.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Participants will complete a novel paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether adolescents (N = 50) and adults (N = 50) are more effective at down-regulating negative affect when a friend provides them with reinterpretations of negative stimuli (i.e. social reappraisal), as compared to when they reinterpret stimuli alone (i.e., cognitive reappraisal). Specifically, participants will look at pictures of upsetting events while undergoing fMRI scanning. For some pictures, they will be instructed to just look at the image. For other pictures, they will be told to listen to their friend's voice as their friend helps them to regulate their emotions. For other pictures, they will be told to regulate their emotions on their own. The primary comparison of interest is how participants regulate emotion on their own versus when their friend helps them.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

100

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
        • Recruiting
        • University of California, Los Angeles
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adolescent participants must be 13-15 year of age
  • Adult participants must be 20-25 years of age
  • Proficient in English

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Auditory, visual or cognitive impairment
  • Any health conditions that are contraindicated for MRI

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Social regulation
Participants will regulate emotion with the help of a friend
Behavioral: Social regulation
Participants will regulate emotion with the help of a friend
Experimental: Cognitive regulation
Participants will regulate emotion on their own
Behavioral: Cognitive regulation
Participants will regulate emotion on their own

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Negative affect
Time Frame: 1 day
Participant's self-reported negative affect on 1-4 scale (1=not bad at all, 4=very bad) during experiment
1 day

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles

Collaborators

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 5, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 7, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 12, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

June 14, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 14, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 21-000929
  • R21HD108751 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Deidentified participant data including age, gender and negative affect

IPD Sharing Time Frame

12 months from study completion

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Deidentified data will be posted on Open Science Framework

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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