Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado

Emotion regulation and depressive symptoms: Examining the mediation effects of school connectedness in Chinese late adolescents Yanhua Zhao*, Guoxiang Zhao Center for Psychological and Behavioral Research, University of Henan, Jinhaidadao Jinming Campus, Kaifeng, 475004, PR China

a b s t r a c t Keywords: Emotion regulation Reappraisal Suppression Depressive symptoms School connectedness Chinese adolescence

This study tested Gross's process model of emotion regulation in a Chinese adolescent sample. It hypothesized that emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) would predict adolescents' perception of school connectedness and depressive symptoms. It also posited that school connectedness may be a possible mediator between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Participants were 504 adolescents aged 16e18 from two Chinese public upper secondary schools. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that reappraisal and suppression significantly associated with school connectedness and depressive symptoms, and school connectedness mediated the link between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms, even when the general emotion experiences were controlled. Although boys unexpectedly reported higher level depressive symptoms, the hypothesized model was invariant across gender except for the link between suppression and depressive symptoms. These findings demonstrate that it is meaningful to involve both emotion regulation processes and school connectedness in explaining adolescent depressive symptoms. © 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction Depression is a prevalent affective disorder. It has been associated with high risk for suicidal behavior, poor educational attainment, and other adolescent health problems (Fletcher, 2008; Keenan-Miller, Hammen, & Brennan, 2007). Acknowledging that adolescent depression is rarely the result of a single risk factor (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998), remarkable progress has been made in explaining the development of depression, especially from the socio-emotional perspective. It is worth mentioning that a recent meta-analysis highlighted the particular contribution of emotion regulation processes to depressive psychopathology (Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010). Emotion regulation processes unfold along emotional response tendencies to social cues, which may affect individuals' social adaptation in various contexts (Gross & John, 2003). As for adolescents, they spend many hours in educational contexts with peers and teachers, who may exert a large influence on adolescents' social relationships by presenting acceptance, care, closeness, and support (Huberty, 2012, chap. 4).

* Corresponding author. Institute of Education Sciences, University of Henan, Jinhaidadao Jinming Campus, Kaifeng, 475004, PR China. Tel.: þ86 371 23881801. E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Zhao). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.12.009 0140-1971/© 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

15

“The extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” was the definition of school belonging provided by Goodenow (1993, p. 80), often used also as the definition of “school connectedness” (see Millings, Buck, Montgomery, Spears, & Stallard, 2012; Shochet, Dadds, Ham, & Montague, 2006). Such psychological “school connectedness” or “school membership” (Wehlage, 1989) is developed through the reciprocal social connections between the student and others in the school and represents the quality of school social relationships (Goodenow, 1993). Therefore, as an indicator of social adjustment in educational contexts, school connectedness may also be affected by the emotion regulation processes. Although studies aimed at examining the social outcomes of emotion regulation exist (e.g., Gross & John, 2003), little attention has been given to understanding the ways in which emotion regulation processes may connect to adolescents' perception of school connectedness. Moreover, school connectedness has been recently identified as a potential protective factor of adolescents' depressive symptoms (Millings et al., 2012; Shochet et al., 2006). Due to the evidenced associations between emotion regulation processes and depressive outcomes, it appears that school connectedness may act as a possible mediator between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, to the author's knowledge, there are no studies which have focused on examining the relationship between adolescent emotion regulation, experiences of school connectedness, and depressive symptoms simultaneously. Meanwhile, because the significant findings regarding the way in which emotion regulation predicts social and depressive outcomes mainly came from Western adult samples, obtaining evidence from eastern adolescent samples is also desirable. The main aim of this study was therefore (a) to examine whether emotion regulation processes would significantly associate with depressive symptoms and school connectedness; (b) to test whether school connectedness would negatively predict depressive symptoms; and (c) to test whether school connectedness would be a possible mediator of the link between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms using a Chinese late adolescent sample. Emotion regulation and depression Emotion regulation can be understood as the process whereby we manage our own emotions (Koole, 2009). Two wellexamined processes or strategies in current literature are cognitive reappraisal (reappraisal) and expressive suppression (suppression), which were developed based on Gross's process model of emotion regulation (1998a, 2001). Reappraisal as a form of antecedent-focused strategy refers to giving a new personal meaning to an emotion-eliciting situation, which could alter eliciting emotions. For example, when people want to reduce the experience of negative emotions (such as sadness or anger), they may change what they are thinking about (Gross & John, 2003). Suppression is a form of response modulation which involves suppressing ongoing emotion-expressive behaviors. For example, some people control their emotions by not expressing them (Gross & John, 2003). These two strategies functioning in different emotion regulation stages may result in different affective, cognitive, and social consequences (Butler et al., 2003; Gross, 1998b; Gross & John, 2003; Gross & Levenson, 1995; Richard & Gross, 2000). Reappraisal has often been discussed as having advantageous outcomes or lower costs in the adaptation process, while suppression has negative outcomes. Depressive symptoms as detrimental outcomes of unsuccessful emotion regulation have been widely investigated by researchers from different areas. Gross and John (2003) found that suppressors reported more symptoms of depression than reappraisers across three depression measures. In a recent meta-analysis focusing on cross-sectional studies, suppression was positively associated with depressive disorder while reappraisal was negatively associated; the presence of suppression was associated with higher depression vulnerability than the absence of reappraisal (Aldao et al., 2010). Betts, Gullone, and Allen (2009) conducted a correlational study regarding relations between emotion regulation and adolescent depressive symptoms and concluded that the habitual use of expressive suppression may serve as a risk factor for symptoms of depression whilst reappraisal may be a protective factor. Due to the higher risk of depression across adolescence (Merikangas et al., 2010), it is reasonable to expect a significant association between emotion regulation (suppression and reappraisal) and the depressive symptoms among late adolescents. Social outcomes of emotion regulation Given that reappraisal changes concurrent emotions and suppression inhibits emotional expressive behaviors, the use of these strategies would probably interfere with social interaction and lead to consequent reactions in other people (Gross, 2001). The question of what consequences reappraisal and suppression might have for social functioning was tested initially in a cross-sectional study by Gross and John (2003) using undergraduate samples. Results indicated that suppressors are less likely to experience positive emotions than reappraisers; suppression negatively predicted social support and peerrated relationship closeness, whereas reappraisal positively predicted peer-rated relationship closeness and likeability. Although the social benefits for reappraisal are not distinct in every aspect, the social costs of suppression are evident. A similar proposal regarding the social effects of reappraisal and suppression on interpersonal communication has been tested experimentally, arguing that suppression may disrupt communication, decrease responsiveness, and inhibit relationship formation in social interaction (Butler et al., 2003). Recently, Srivastava, Tamir, McGonigal, John, and Gross (2009) reported that suppression (reappraisal was not included) could predict low social connection (social support, peer status, social satisfaction) before and during the transition from high school to the first term in college. A longitudinal study also provided evidence for the link between suppression and poorer social functioning in a sample of college students from the perspective of social connection and added that reappraisal could significantly improve students' social connection (English,

16

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

John, Srivastava, & Gross, 2012). Because students have extensive social connection with others in schools, we proposed that the habitual use of reappraisal should relate positively to adolescent students' school connectedness, but that habitual suppression may have a negative relation to school connectedness. School connectedness as a mediator School connectedness is widely connected with school-based adaptive outcomes during adolescence. The happy, comfortable experiences of school connectedness have been positively connected with adolescents' motivated behavior, selfconcept, academic success, enhanced social and emotional development, and well-being (Cook, Purdie-Vaughns, Garcia, & Cohen, 2012; Deci, Vallerland, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991; Goodenow, 1993; Walton & Cohen, 2011; Wehlage, 1989). The lack of school connectedness predicts dropout, low academic performance, high risk behaviors, and poor mental health (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Bond et al., 2007; Cook et al., 2012; Finn, 1989; Millings et al., 2012; Resnick et al., 1997; Shochet et al., 2006). For instance, Anderman (2002) found out that school connectedness was negatively related to depressive symptoms in adolescents from grade 7 to 12. This reverse relationship was also reported in other cross-sectional and longitudinal studies using adolescent samples (Bond et al., 2007; Kia-Keating & Ellis, 2007; Millings et al., 2012; Shochet et al., 2006). It is therefore expected that school connectedness would have a negative association with depressive symptoms in the current sample. Although school connectedness is critical to adolescent mental health, it is still an underexplored area (Shochet et al., 2006). Regarding the mediating role of school connectedness, previous studies have demonstrated that reappraisal and suppression have a significant relation to adolescents' social connection and symptoms of depression (Aldao et al., 2010; Butler et al., 2003; English et al., 2012; Gross & John, 2003). Meanwhile, school connectedness, representing students' social connection in schools, is a strong protective factor of adolescents' depressive symptoms (Millings et al., 2012; Shochet et al., 2006). So the rationale for the hypothesis regarding school connectedness as a mediator between emotion regulation (reappraisal and suppression) and depressive symptoms is supported. Focus on Chinese adolescents A recent review study has revealed that about 10%e50% of Chinese children and adolescents from different regions suffer from depression (Zgambo, Kalembo, He, & Wang, 2012). In several studies, the prevalence rates of depression were higher in Chinese adolescents than those in Western societies (Chan, 1995; Sunita et al., 1999; Tepper et al., 2008). Cultural backgrounds probably have an influence on the prevalence of depression, because they can influence how we view and regulate our emotions (Matsumoto et al., 2008; Tsai & Levenson, 1997). Former studies have argued that Asian culture encourages individuals to suppress their emotions more than Western culture (Eng, 2012; English & John, 2012; Tsai & Levenson, 1997). In traditional Chinese culture, suppressing personal desires and emotional expressions appropriately in various circumstances is a social norm which people have to learn (Liu, 2011; Potter, 1988). As such, Chinese adolescents are very likely taught to suppress their emotional expressions or to display appropriate emotions. Consistent with this cultural expectation, adolescents holding Chinese cultural values may suppress their emotional expressive behaviors more often in daily lives than those with Western or American values. Although the Chinese believe that self-experienced emotions are irrelevant to maintain social order and are not important in social life (Potter, 1988), it is unclear how much the cultural affirmation of habitual suppression could moderate the effects of suppression on adolescents' social functioning and depressive symptoms. Past literature has documented some weaker associations between suppression and social adjustment for people with Asian values rather than Western or American values (Butler, Lee, & Gross, 2007; Cui, Lu, Guo, & Shi, 2012; English & John, 2012; Kwon, Yoon, Joormann, & Kwon, 2013). The present study In summary, we hypothesized that there are significant associations between adolescent emotion regulation, school connectedness, and depressive symptoms, and school connectedness would mediate the link between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Moreover, this study tested whether the above mentioned associations are equivalent across gender. Finally, these hypotheses were tested on Chinese late adolescents using a structural equation modeling approach. Method Participants and procedure Participants were recruited from two public upper secondary schools in the capital city of Henan Province, mainland China. This study was first approved by the two school committees, and then combined with the annual assessments for psychological problems. Parents signed forms indicating their consent for their children to participate at the beginning of this school project. Six classes (of 12 classes) of Grade 11 were then randomly selected from each school. Data were collected during self-learning classes, every student in the selected classes received a research packet (including an introduction to this study, a consent letter, and a questionnaire) and was invited to participate in the study. The author gave instruction in the use

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

17

of Likert-type scales and encouraged students to ask questions if necessary. Participants finished the questionnaire alone and were assured that their responses would be confidential. Every voluntary respondent signed the consent letter and submitted the questionnaire which consisted of a wide array of measures assessing demographic, emotion, motivation, and social functioning variables in a classroom setting. The data were then merged with institutional records of general point average (GPA). In the present study, the focus was given to those measures and results that are crucial for testing related hypotheses. Of the 600 distributed questionnaires targeting 11th graders, 520 (86.7%) were returned. A total of 16 invalid cases (giving insufficient responses) were excluded prior to further analyses. Of the final 504 participants (316 girls and 188 boys), 98% were 16e18 years old (mean age ¼ 16.86, SD ¼ .68). As for ethnic distribution, 95.5% were Han-Chinese and 3.4% were ethnic minorities. In terms of father's education level, 4.6% completed primary school, 38.5% middle school, 38.5% high school, 14.3% college, and .8% above college. Measures The following measures were initially written in English and then translated into Chinese using the back-translation procedure. No items were deleted or significantly changed during the translation process. The Chinese version was then adjusted to the given sample using a pilot test on six adolescents. After consulting with these students, the language of the questionnaire was adjusted a little to aid understanding. The last version was then applied to this study. Emotion regulation The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) was used to measure emotion regulation strategies. This 10-item questionnaire assesses two emotion regulation strategies: reappraisal (e.g., “I control my emotions by changing the way I think about the situation I'm in”) and suppression (e.g., “I control my emotions by not expressing them”). Respondents were instructed to indicate the degree to which the statements accurately described themselves on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The 6-item reappraisal subscale and 4-item suppression subscale were summed up separately to provide two scale scores, with a higher score indicating more uses of the targeted strategy. ERQ has indicated good psychometric characteristics in the samples of American youths (Gross & John, 2003) and Chinese adolescents (Hsieh & Stright, 2012; Yan & Yu, 2009). Cronbach's alpha in this study was .73 for reappraisal and .70 for suppression. School connectedness School connectedness was measured using a brief version of the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM). The PSSM developed originally by Goodenow (1993) provided good psychometric characteristics in Chinese adolescent samples (Bao & Xu, 2006; Pan, Wang, Song, Ding, & Dai, 2011). The brief PSSM with 11 items which represent those central aspects of PSSM (Hagborg, 1994) have demonstrated good reliability and validity (Hagborg, 1998). It was used to test students' perceived school connectedness (e.g., “I feel a real part of this school”). Principle component analysis showed that each item loaded on the factor school connectedness with a factor loading above .40 in the current study, meeting the guideline of explorative factor analysis suggested by Ford, MacCallum, and Tait (1986). Participants were asked to respond to each statement on a 5-point scale from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (completely true). Item scores were summed, with a higher score indicating greater school connectedness. Cronbach's alpha in this study was .82. Depressive symptoms The self-reported Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) was chosen to assess adolescent symptoms of depression. The 20-item scale assessed adolescents' depressive symptoms in the last week (e.g., “I feel like I couldn't pay attention to what I was doing this week”). Participants rated the occurrence frequency of each symptom on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (a lot). The item scores were summed, with higher scores indicating greater depression. The CES-DC has shown good psychometric qualities especially in adolescent samples (Faulstich, Carey, Ruggiero, Enyart, & Gresham, 1986; Fendrich, Weissman, & Warner, 1990). It has also shown good psychometric characteristics in Chinese children and adolescent studies (Lin, Fang, Yang, & Lan, 2009). Cronbach's alpha in the present study was .88. Control variables GPA and fathers' education level were controlled variables. Moreover, in consideration of the fact that emotion experiences may affect emotion regulation strategies, social functioning, and depressive symptoms, general positive and negative emotion experiences were also controlled in the current study. The general positive and negative emotion experiences of adolescents in the past school year were assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). The two-factor structure of PANAS and good test reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha of each subscale above .80) have been confirmed by several studies using Chinese samples (e.g. Huang, Yang, & Ji, 2003; Zhang, Diao, & Schick, 2004). Respondents

18

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

rated the 20-item scale (e.g., positive emotion “joy,” negative emotion “sadness”) from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Cronbach's alpha in this study was .86 for positive emotion and .85 for negative emotion. Results Descriptive analyses First, expectation maximization (EM) methods were used to impute randomly missing data in the items. There was no evidence of univariate non-normality of the data, but based on the results of DeCarlo's (1997) multivariate skew and kurtosis statistics, the data were multivariate non-normal. Table 1 shows the means, SDs, and correlations for the total sample. The relationships among variables were initially tested using bivariate correlations. These correlations supported the hypothesized associations between emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and suppression) and depressive symptoms (ps < .01) and between school connectedness and depressive symptoms (p < .01). As for the positive valence of emotions, reappraisal strategy showed a positive relationship to positive emotions (p < .01) but suppression did not (p > .05). For negative valence of emotions, reappraisal negatively associated with negative emotions (p < .01) whereas suppression was positively associated (p < .01). Because age was not correlated with any main research variables (ps > .05), it was not included. Mean level gender differences were examined using independent sample t tests (see Table 2). Results indicated that males reported more habitual use of suppression than females, representing a common trend of suppression (Flynn, Hollenstein, & Mackey, 2010; Gross & John, 2003). Inconsistent with existing literature regarding school connectedness (Anderman, 2002; Hagborg, 1994), males perceived lower levels of school connectedness. In addition, males reported more negative emotions and depressive symptoms than females. Measurement model The analysis of the proposed structural model followed the two-step procedure recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). First, confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine a measurement model with an acceptable fit to the data. Provided an acceptable measurement model was developed, the structural model was tested. To reduce the number of parameters and future estimation problems, the original items were parceled using the shared uniqueness method which may improve the accuracy of parameter estimates (Hall, Snell, & Fous, 1999). Finally, 12 parcels themselves representing the items that loaded onto latent factors were created: three parcels for reappraisal, two for suppression, three for school connectedness, and four for depressive symptoms. Upon consideration of multivariate non-normality of the data, the hypothesized model was estimated using the Maximum-Likelihood (ML) methods with adjustments for non-normality using Mplus 6.0.
n & Specifically, we estimated the robust chi-squares (SatorraeBentler scaled c2), standard errors, and fit indices (Muthe
n, 1998e2012). Three indices suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999) were chosen to assess goodness of fit for each Muthe model: the comparative fit index (CFI; best if close to .95 or greater), the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA; best if close to .06 or less), and the standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR; best if close to .08 or less). The initial test of the four-factor measurement model resulted in a good fit to the data, SatorraeBentler (SeB) scaled c2 (48) ¼ 92.9, CFI ¼ .96, SRMR ¼ .05, RMSEA ¼ .05 (90% CI, .03e.06). All of the factor loadings of the 12 parcels on the latent variables were statistically significant (bs > .40, ps < .001; see Fig. 1). Thus, all the latent variables were measured by their respective observed variables (12 parcels). This model was submitted to Mplus again to test the hypothesized structural model. Testing the structural model The structural model (see Fig. 1) was examined using the ML method with adjustments for non-normality, and four latent factors were regressed on the covariates including GPA, fathers' education level, the composite of positive emotions, and the composite of negative emotions. Again, the results showed a good model fit, SeB scaled c2 (80) ¼ 138.8, CFI ¼ .95, SRMR ¼ .04, Table 1 Means, standard deviations, and correlations among variables. Variable

M

SD

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

NAa NA 2.67 3.09 2.10 4.76 3.73 3.39 2.00

NA NA .81 .68 .66 .96 1.17 .59 .47

.17** .06 e.05 e.16** .04 e.17** .10* e.24**

e.08 .05 e.07 .09* e.09* .12** e.11*

e.02 e.03 e.05 e.03 .07 e.12**

.05 .27** e.06 .40** e.23**

e.14** .14** e.24** .50**

.09* .33** e.24**

e.06 .15**

e.37**

Gender GPA Fathers' education Positive emotion Negative emotion Reappraisal Suppression School connectedness Depressive symptoms

Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01. a Not applicable.

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

19

Table 2 Means and standard deviations for males and females, and gender differences between females and males. Variable

Males

Positive emotion Negative emotion Reappraisal Suppression School belonging Depressive symptoms

Females

Differences

M

SD

M

SD

t

Cohen's d

3.13 2.23 4.71 3.99 3.31 2.15

.72 .73 .93 1.16 .63 .48

3.06 2.02 4.79 3.58 3.44 1.92

.65 .61 .98 1.16 .56 .45

1.10 3.54** e.58 3.76** e 2.34* 5.45**

.10 .31 e.08 .38 e.22 .49

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01.

Fig. 1. Standardized coefficients for proposed structural equation model (N ¼ 504). Latent constructs are shown in ellipses, and observed variables are in rectangles. Note. SeB scaled c2 (80) ¼ 138.8, p < .001, CFI ¼ .95, SRMR ¼ .04, RMSEA ¼ .04 (90% CI, .03e.05). REA1-REA3 ¼ three parcels of cognitive reappraisal; SUP1SUP2 ¼ two parcels of expressive suppression; SC1SC3 ¼ three parcels of school connectedness; DES1DES4 ¼ four parcels of depressive symptoms. *p < .05, **p < .01, ns ¼ not significant.

RMSEA ¼ .04 (90% CI, .03e.05). Findings suggest three direct associations: reappraisal positively connected to different levels of school connectedness; suppression positively associated with depressive symptoms; and school connectedness negatively associated with depressive symptoms (see Fig. 1). To test for the statistical significance and obtain the 95% bias-corrected (BC) confidence level for the indirect effects, a standard ML bootstrapping was performed by asking the Mplus to estimate 5000 bootstrap samples for the hypothesized model. Bootstrapping as a resampling method was recommended to estimate mediation (Preacher & Hayes, 2008; Shrout & Bolger, 2002). If the 95% confidence interval (CI) does not include zero, it means a significant indirect effect at the level of .05. Actually, the significances of the bootstrapped parameter estimates were very similar to those of the original model except for the link between suppression and school connectedness (not significant anymore). The unstandardized indirect effect of reappraisal through school connectedness on depressive symptoms was significant (B ¼ .28, SE ¼ .08, p < .01), and the BC bootstrap CI did not include zero (from .46 to .15), indicating that every increase of reappraisal will result in a significant decrease of depressive symptoms by .28 (in addition to the direct effect of reappraisal on depressive symptoms). These findings support the hypothesis that school connectedness mediates the link between reappraisal and depressive symptoms. In contrast, the unstandardized indirect effect of suppression on depressive symptoms was weak (B ¼ .08, SE ¼ .05, p ¼ .10). Although the bootstrap p value did not reach a statistically significant level of .05, the bootstrap CI (from .01 to .22) which excluded zero suggests a significant indirect effect. Given that bootstrap CIs could perform best in conducting inferential tests of indirect effects (Hayes, 2013), it would be preferable to consider that the indirect effect of suppression through school connectedness on depressive symptoms was significant.

Table 3 Corrected chi-square and fit indices for models tested the gender equivalence. Models

S-B scaled c2

df

CFI

RMSEA

SRMR

DSeB scaled c2

Ddf

p

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

239.74 259.37 246.44

168 174 173

.942 .932 .941

.04 (.03, .05) .05 (.03, .06) .04 (.03, .05)

.05 .06 .05

19.35 6.73

6 5

.05

Note. Model 1 ¼ Baseline model for testing gender equivalence; Model 2 ¼ All structural paths and one correlation constrained to be equal across gender; Model 3 ¼ All structural paths and correlation constrained to be equal across gender with suppression-depressive symptoms path released.

20

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

Moreover, multiple group analyses were applied to test the gender invariance of the hypothesized structural model. First, a baseline model was created by allowing all parameters freed to vary by gender, which showed a good fit to the data (see Table 3, Model 1). Second, the five path coefficients and the one correlation were constrained to be equal for boys and girls
n, 2010), (Model 2). Then, Model 1 and Model 2 were compared using SeB chi-square difference tests (Asparouhov & Muthe which revealed a significant difference, DSeB scaled c2 ¼ 19.35, df ¼ 6, p < .01, DCFI > .01, suggesting that the model was not totally invariant across gender. To check the paths which may be not equal across gender groups, the constrained paths of the model were released one by one. Finally, it was detected that the significant SeB chi-square difference disappeared only when the path coefficient from suppression to depression was released (Model 3), DSeB scaled c2 ¼ 6.73, df ¼ 5, p > .05, DCFI < .01, indicated that the association between suppression and depressive symptoms was not invariant across gender. This is consistent with the argument of Flynn et al. (2010) that gender could moderate the suppressionedepression link and suppression may be more useful in explaining depressive symptoms in boys than in girls. Structural equivalence demonstrates that the relationships between latent variables are similar across gender except for the link between suppression and depressive symptoms. In total, the structural model explained 26% variance in school connectedness and 28% variance in depressive symptoms. Discussion The current study tested a part of the process model of emotion regulation and its application in understanding the development of adolescent depression. The study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, to the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to associate emotion regulation with school connectedness in order to understand adolescent depressive symptoms. Second, the study is also the first one to examine whether emotion regulation is important to Chinese adolescent school connectedness and depressive symptoms using latent factor structures. Third, we tested the associations between emotion regulation strategies, school connectedness, and depressive symptoms simultaneously, and suggested that school connectedness is likely to be a mediator variable between emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. To a large extent, the present results are consistent with former literature and initial assumptions, which indicated that both emotion regulation and school connectedness are meaningful constructs in understanding adolescent depressive symptoms. Reappraisal and suppression as predictors of school connectedness As expected, reappraisal significantly correlates with school connectedness in the current sample, implying that individuals who are habitual users of reappraisal strategy would perceive stronger school connectedness. This finding is consistent with the past literature associating reappraisal with positive social functioning profiles (English et al., 2012; Gross ^te, & Beers, 2005; Srivastava et al., 2009). Likewise, consistent with former literature asso& John, 2003; Lopes, Salovey, Co ciating suppression with low social functioning indices (English et al., 2012; Gross & John, 2003; Srivastava et al., 2009), habitual users of suppression have reported lower levels of school connectedness. This suggests that a negative social influence of suppression may occur before adulthood, even in a culture which universally appreciates suppression. As school connectedness represents the general quality of school social relationships (Goodenow, 1993), more specific social consequences of emotion regulation in school contexts need further examination. Suppression, reappraisal, and school connectedness as predictors of depressive symptoms Consistent with the literature suggesting a positive relationship between suppression and depressive symptoms (Aldao et al., 2010; Gross & John, 2003; Larsen et al., 2012), habitual suppression users reported higher levels of depressive symptoms in the current sample. By contrast, school connectedness was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, which is in accord with past literature suggesting that school connectedness would be a protective factor against depressive symptoms (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Bond et al., 2007; Millings et al., 2012; Shochet et al., 2006). With regard to reappraisal strategy, it was negatively associated with depressive symptoms in preliminary correlation analysis (r ¼ .22, p < .01) as demonstrated in former studies (Aldao et al., 2010; Gross & John, 2003). However, this association was no longer significant when both direct and indirect effects of reappraisal were included in a structural equation model. It may, from another standpoint, support our hypothesis that the association between reappraisal and depressive symptoms should be mediated by school connectedness. In terms of the mediation effect, the structural equation model evidenced that school connectedness may serve as a mediator between the link of reappraisal and depressive symptoms, representing that reappraisal may have a positive function in reducing adolescent depressive symptoms through increasing the quality of adolescents' school social relationships. Meanwhile, this study suggests that suppression may indirectly increase depressive symptoms through weakening students' school connectedness, but the effect was weaker than expected. Considering that Chinese values may ease the associations between suppression and social adjustments (both social functioning and depressive symptoms) among Chinese undergraduates (Cui et al., 2012; English & John, 2012), it is likely that the same values may more or less attenuate the associations between suppression and social adjustments among Chinese adolescents. Moreover, in the bootstrapping procedure, we found that the association between suppression and school connectedness was no longer significant. Suppression may thus have a weaker indirect effect on depressive symptoms when it exerts a weaker effect on adolescents' school

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

21

connectedness. Overall, findings support our hypotheses regarding the possible direct and indirect effects of emotion regulation and school connectedness on depressive symptoms. Additionally, boys are more depressed than girls, which supports the findings reported by Cao and He (1999) but disaccords with the incidence trends of depression in many studies (see Hankin et al., 1998; Wade, Cairney, & Pevalin, 2002). Actually, even when the effects of GPA, fathers' education level, and emotion experiences were controlled for in a general linear model, boys still showed higher levels of depression than girls (F ¼ 17.63, p < .001, h2 ¼ .036). One possible reason might be that late adolescents are experiencing the transitional period between boyhood and adulthood. Social expectations of male identity may increase their stress in becoming an adult. Meanwhile, males suppressing their emotions more frequently than females (Flynn et al., 2010), which probably increases their sufferance of depressive symptoms. Limitations and future directions In summary, current findings support the literature associating reappraisal, suppression, and school connectedness with depressive symptoms, and expand these associations to a non-Western adolescent sample. Several limitations should be considered in interpreting these results. First, the self-report nature of the data cannot exclude the impact of social desirability. Future study may use multiple-methods to minimize this potential influence. Second, the correlational nature of the current study makes it impossible to provide causality and directionality in such a preliminary study. Although the proposed indirect effects of emotion regulation through school connectedness on depressive symptoms are theoretically and empirically grounded, we cannot reject the possibility that an opposite direction works as well. Fortunately, existing longitudinal studies have indicated that using reappraisal and suppression predicted changes in college students' social connection (English et al., 2012), and school connection, which represents the quality of students' social relationships in school, may predict later depressive symptoms (Bond et al., 2007). These findings guide us towards the next step which is to promote this research direction using a longitudinal research design. Finally, several other commonly used emotion regulation strategies which have been identified as predictors of depressive psychopathology have not been included in this study. For example, rumination, avoidance, problem solving, self-blame, and catastrophizing strategy (Aldao et al., 2010; Garnefski & Kraaij, 2007); rumination in particular has indicated a prominent effect size in predicting depression in children and adolescents (Aldao et al., 2010; Grabe, Hyde, & Lindberg, 2007; NolenHoeksema, 2012; Papadakis, Prince, Jones, & Strauman, 2006). Future studies concerning adolescent emotion regulation and depressive symptoms should optimize the particular and joint effects of these different strategies which used by adolescents in different school-related situations. Conclusion Our findings suggest that both reappraisal and suppression strategies are strong predictors of Chinese adolescents' depressive symptoms although cultural values may probably modify these associations. In comparison to emotion regulation, school connectedness is a stronger factor in predicting depressive symptoms and could well be a mediator behind the effect of emotion regulation on depressive symptoms. Future research could apply a longitudinal approach to observe the suggested model over time, or to apply this model to a cross-cultural comparison study. School-based interventions focusing on reducing adolescent depressive symptoms may benefit from current findings by emphasizing the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies like reappraisal and less maladaptive strategies like suppression, building concerned learning communities to enhance students' school connectedness, and paying particular attention to the habitual use of suppression in late male adolescents to lessen their sufferance of distress experiences. References Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 217e237. Anderman, E. M. (2002). School effects on psychological outcomes during adolescence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 795e809. Anderson, J., & Gerbing, D. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411e423.
n, B. (2010). Computing the strictly positive Satorra-Bentler chi-square test in Mplus. Mplus Web Notes: No. 12. January 24, 2012. Asparouhov, T., & Muthe Retrieved from http://www.statmodel.com/examples/webnotes/SB5.pdf. Bao, K., & Xu, Q. (2006). Preliminary study on school belonging of school students. Psychological Exploration (Chinese), 26(2), 51e54. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497e529. Betts, J., Gullone, E., & Allen, J. S. (2009). An examination of emotion regulation, temperament, and parenting style as potential predictors of adolescent depression risk status: a correlation study. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27, 473e485. Bond, L., Butler, H., Thomas, L., Carlin, J., Glover, S., Bowes, G., et al. (2007). Social and school connectedness in early secondary school as predictors of late teenage substance use, mental health, and academic outcomes. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40(4), 357.e9e357.e18. Butler, E. A., Egloff, B., Wilhelm, F. H., Smith, N. C., Erickson, E. A., & Gross, J. J. (2003). The social consequences of expressive suppression. Emotion, 3(1), 48e67. Butler, E. A., Lee, T. L., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Emotion regulation and culture: are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture specific? Emotion, 7(1), 30e48. Cao, B., & He, W. (1999). Emotional states of students from key senior high school. Peoples' Education (Chinese), 6, 14e23. Chan, D. W. (1995). Depressive symptoms and coping strategies among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 24(3), 267e279. Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. (1998). The development of depression in children and adolescents. American Psychologist, 53, 221e241.

22

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

Cook, J. E., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., & Cohen, G. L. (2012). Chronic threat and contingent belonging: protective benefits of values affirmation on identity development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(3), 479e496. Cui, X., Lu, C., Guo, Y., & Shi, H. (2012). The relationship between emotion regulation and depression of college students. China Journal of Health Psychology, 20(3), 431e432. DeCarlo, L. T. (1997). On the meaning and use of kurtosis. Psychological Methods, 2, 292e307. Deci, E. L., Vallerland, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., & Ryan, R. M. (1991). Motivation and education: the self-determination perspective. Educational Psychologist, 26, 325e346. Eng, J. S. (2012). Emotion regulation and culture: the effects of cultural models of self on western and East Asian differences in suppression and reappraisal. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fg3k1p0. English, T., & John, O. (2012, Octorber 8). Understanding the social effects of emotion regulation: the mediating role of authenticity for individual differences in suppression. Emotion. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029847. Advance online publication. English, T., John, O., Srivastava, S., & Gross, J. J. (2012). Emotion regulation and peer-rated social functioning: a 4-year longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 780e784. Faulstich, M. E., Carey, M. P., Ruggiero, L., Enyart, P., & Gresham, F. (1986). Assessment of depression in childhood and adolescence: an evaluation of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC). American Journal of Psychiatry, 143(8), 1024e1027. Fendrich, M., Weissman, M. M., & Warner, V. (1990). Screening for depressive disorder in children and adolescents: validating the center for epidemiologic studies depression scale for children. American Journal of Epidemiology, 131(3), 538e551. Finn, J. D. (1989). Withdrawing from school. Review of Educational Research, 59, 117e142. Fletcher, J. M. (2008). Adolescent depression and educational attainment: results using sibling fixed effects. Health Economics, 17, 1215e1235. Flynn, J. J., Hollenstein, T., & Mackey, A. (2010). The effect of suppressing and not accepting emotions on depressive symptoms: is suppression different for men and women? Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 582e586. Ford, J. K., MacCallum, R. C., & Tait, M. (1986). The application of exploratory factor analysis in applied psychology: a critical review and analysis. Personnel Psychology, 39, 291e314. Garnefski, N., & Kraaij, V. (2007). The cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire psychometric features and prospective relationships with depression and anxiety in adults. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23(3), 141e149. Goodenow, C. (1993). The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: Scale development and educational correlates. Psychology in the Schools, 30, 79e91. Grabe, S., Hyde, J. S., & Lindberg, S. M. (2007). Body objectification and depression in adolescents: The role of gender, shame, and rumination. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31, 164e175. Gross, J. J. (1998a). The emerging field of emotion regulation: an integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271e299. Gross, J. J. (1998b). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224e237. Gross, J. J. (2001). Emotion regulation in adulthood: timing is everything. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 214e219. Gross, J., & John, O. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348e362. Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 87e108. Hagborg, W. J. (1994). An exploration of school membership in middle and high school. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 12, 312e323. Hagborg, W. J. (1998). An investigation of a brief measure of school membership. Adolescence, 33(130), 461e468. Hall, R. J., Snell, A. F., & Fous, M. S. (1999). Item parceling strategies in SEM: Investigating the subtle effects of unmodeled secondary constructs. Organizational Research Methods, 2(3), 233e256. Hankin, B., Abramson, L., Moffitt, T., Silva, P., McGee, R., & Angell, K. (1998). Development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood: emerging gender differences in a 10-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107(1), 128e140. Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: The Guilford Press. Hsieh, M., & Stright, A. D. (2012). Adolescents' emotion regulation strategies, self-concept, and internalizing problems. The Journal of Early Adolescent, 32(6), 876e901. Huang, L., Yang, T., & Ji, Z. (2003). Applicability of the positive and negative affect scale in Chinese. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 17(1), 54e56. Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1e55. Huberty, T. J. (2012). Anxiety and depression in children and adolescents: Assessment, intervention, and prevention. New York: Springer. Keenan-Miller, D., Hammen, C. L., & Brennan, P. A. (2007). Health outcomes related to early adolescent depression. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41, 256e262. Kia-Keating, M., & Ellis, B. H. (2007). Belonging and connection to school in resettlement: young refugees, school belonging, and psychosocial adjustment. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12(1), 29e43. Koole, S. (2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: an integrative view. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 4e41. Kwon, H., Yoon, K. L., Joormann, J., & Kwon, J. H. (2013). Cultural and gender differences in emotion regulation: Relation to depression. Cognition & Emotion, 27(5), 769e782. Larsen, J. K., Vermulst, A. A., Eisinga, R. N., English, T., Gross, J. J., Hofman, E., Scholte, R. H. J., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2012). Social coping by masking? Parental support and peer victimization as mediators of the relationship between depressive symptoms and expressive suppression in adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(12), 1628e1642. Lin, X., Fang, X., Yang, Y., & Lan, J. (2009). The effect mechanism of stigma perfection on mental health among migrant children in Beijing. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 41(10), 967e979. Liu, Z. (2011). The essence of suppression (Chinese). Haichao Publisher. ^te, S., & Beers, M. (2005). Emotion regulation abilities and the quality of social interaction. Emotion, 5, 113e118. Lopes, P. N., Salovey, P., Co Merikangas, K. R., He, J., Burstein, M., Swanson, S. A., Avenevoli, S., Cui, L., et al. (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in U.S. adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 980e989. Millings, A., Buck, R., Montgomery, A., Spears, M., & Stallard, P. (2012). School connectedness, peer attachment, and self-esteem as predictors of adolescent depression. Journal of Adolescence, 35(4), 1061e1067.
n, L. K., & Muthe
n, B. O. (1998e2012). Mplus user's guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthe
n & Muthe
n. Muthe Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: the role of gender. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 161e187. Pan, F., Wang, Q., Song, L., Ding, J., & Dai, J. (2011). A research on reliability and validity of psychological sense of school membership scale. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 19(2), 200e202. Papadakis, A. A., Prince, R. P., Jones, N. P., & Strauman, T. J. (2006). Self-regulation, rumination, and vulnerability to depression in adolescent girls. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 815e829. Potter, S. H. (1988). The cultural construction of emotion in rural Chinese social life. Ethos, 16, 181e208. Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879e891. Resnick, M. D., Bearman, P. S., Blum, R. W., Bauman, K. E., Harris, K. M., Jones, J., et al. (1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: findings from the national longitudinal study on adolescent health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 823e832.

Y. Zhao, G. Zhao / Journal of Adolescence 40 (2015) 14e23

23

Richard, J., & Gross, J. J. (2000). Emotion regulation and memory: the cognitive costs of keeping one's cool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 410e424. Shochet, I. M., Dadds, M. R., Ham, D., & Montague, R. (2006). School connectedness is an underemphasized parameter in adolescent mental health: results of a community prediction study. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35(2), 170e179. Shrout, P., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422e445. Srivastava, S., Tamir, M., McGonigal, K. M., John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2009). The social costs of emotional suppression: a prospective study of the transition to college. Journal of Personality and Social psychology, 96, 883e897. Sunita, M., Stewart, C. L., Betson, H., Lam, S. F., Chung, H. H., & Ho, T. C. F. (1999). The correlates of depressed mood in adolescents in Hong Kong. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25(1), 27e34. Tepper, P., Liu, X., Guo, C., Zhai, J., Liu, T., & Li, C. (2008). Depressive symptoms in Chinese children and adolescents: parent, teacher, and self-reports. Journal of Affective Disorders, 111(2), 291e298. Tsai, J. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Cultural influences on emotional responding: Chinese American and European American dating couples during interpersonal conflict. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 28, 600e625. Wade, T. J., Cairney, J., & Pevalin, D. J. (2002). Emergence of gender differences in depression during adolescence: national panel results from three countries. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41, 190e198. Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students. Science, 331, 1447e1451. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063e1070. Wehlage, G. G. (1989). Dropping out: can schools be expected to prevent it? In L. Weis, E. Farrar, & H. Petrie (Eds.), Dropouts from school (pp. 1e19) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Yan, D., & Yu, G. (2009). Assessing two emotion regulation processes in Chinese adolescents. Natural Computation, 5, 112e116. Zgambo, M., Kalembo, F., He, G., & Wang, H. (2012). Depression among Chinese children and adolescents: a review of the literature. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 4(1), 442e457. Zhang, W., Diao, J., & Schick, C. J. (2004). The cross-cultural measurement of positive and negative affect: examining the dimensionality of PANAS. Psychological Science, 27(1), 77e79 (in Chinese).