The role of negative life events and parental mental health in adolescent self-regulation: insights from the longitudinal ABCD study

Background Adolescence is a critical period for the development of mental health problems, with self-regulation playing a crucial role as a protective factor. However, little is known about the self-regulation development in adolescence and how this is influenced by environmental factors such as negative life events (NLEs) and parental mental health problems. This study aimed to examine changes in self-regulation and the predictive effect of NLEs and parental mental health problems on self-regulation. Methods We included a sample of N = 2803 adolescents from the ABCD study. We explored changes in self-regulation by comparing variables between the ages of 11–12 and 13–14 (behavioral and cognitive self-regulation) and the ages of 12–13 and 13–14 (emotional self-regulation). We also compared self-regulation changes in adolescents with and without a history of NLEs and with and without parents with clinically significant mental health problems. Using linear regression, we analyzed the predictive effect of NLEs and parental mental health problems on self-regulation two years later. Results Adolescents showed a small increase in mean cognitive self-regulation (η 2 part = 0.22) and expressive suppression as part of emotional self-regulation (η 2 part = 0.07), and a small decrease in behavioral self-regulation (η 2 part = 0.09). The results of the regression analysis indicate small, significant effects of NLEs and parental mental health problems on adolescent self-regulation. Self-regulation at the first assessment significantly predicted later self-regulation. Conclusions Our results suggest that self-regulation still develops in early adolescence, marked both by improvements in some components of self-regulation and difficulties in others. To better understand developmental trajectories and determinants of self-regulation, prospective longitudinal studies starting earlier in development and covering a longer period are needed.