Enhancing Emotion Regulation and Brain Connectivity in Adolescent Girls Through Parental Emotion Socialization: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

In 30 seconds

This randomized controlled trial tested whether an emotion-focused parenting intervention could affect emotion regulation and related brain connectivity in 10- to 12-year-old girls with elevated internalizing symptoms. Mothers were assigned to eight weekly sessions of Tuning in to Teens or a waitlist; analyses included 60 mother–daughter dyads. From preintervention to 6-month follow-up, girls in the intervention group had greater increases in insula–supplementary motor area and insula–precuneus functional connectivity than controls, alongside improved mother-reported emotion regulation. The findings support a causal effect of the intervention on these measured outcomes in this population.

Key findings

• Analyses included 60 dyads: 30 in the intervention group and 30 in the waitlist control group.
• Compared with controls, intervention-group girls showed increased insula–supplementary motor area and insula–precuneus functional connectivity from baseline to 6-month follow-up.
• Mother-reported adolescent emotion regulation improved in the intervention group relative to waitlist controls.

Why it matters

The trial provides experimental evidence that changing parental emotion-socialization practices may influence emotion regulation in early adolescent girls with elevated internalizing symptoms. The accompanying connectivity changes offer a neural correlate of the observed intervention effects, although the abstract does not establish whether these changes translate into reduced symptoms or longer-term clinical benefit.

What to keep in mind

Analyses included 60 dyads, and the findings concern girls aged 10 to 12 years with elevated internalizing symptoms; generalisability beyond this population is uncertain.