Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies, which play a crucial role in socio-emotional development, is related to how one regulates the emotions of others. However, research on children’s and adolescents' IER abilities in moral contexts is limited. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in children’s and adolescents’ IER abilities and their motivations for using these strategies across different types of moral violation scenarios. Additionally, we aimed to examine whether children’s and adolescents’ moral reasoning varies depending on the type of moral violation. To this end, we conducted online interviews with 105 participants from age groups: 5 years (n = 33), 9 years (n = 38), and 13 years (n = 34). Two scenarios involving violations of positive (not sharing) and negative (stealing) moral duties were used to assess moral reasoning and IER abilities. Preliminary analyses showed that, as expected, participants evaluated the violation of a negative moral duty (stealing) as more wrong than the violation of a positive moral duty (not sharing). Regarding IER, results indicated that children and adolescents mostly preferred to change victim’s emotions more than victimizer’s emotion in both scenarios. However, they were more likely to change victimizer’s emotion in stealing story compared to sharing scenario. Additionally, participants predominantly preferred behavioural engagement to regulate victim’s emotions but preferred cognitive engagement to regulate victimizer’s emotion in both scenarios. Moreover, while participants commonly used instrumental and altruistic reasoning to justify their emotion regulation strategies toward the victimizer in the stealing scenario, they predominantly used altruistic and social reasoning in the sharing scenario. Overall, these preliminary results suggest that children and adolescents’ moral reasoning, IER abilities and motivations under these abilities may vary across different moral contexts.

Adolescence is a period of major physical, cognitive, and social changes which affect how adolescents regulate their own and others’ emotions. However, the existing literature has predominantly focused on intrapersonal emotion regulation skills, with research on adolescents' interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) abilities lacking. This pre-registered study examined whether emotional (sadness v. fear), relational (mother v. best friend), and cultural (Türkiye, the Netherlands, United Kingdom) contexts affected adolescents’ intentions to regulate others’ emotions and their selection of possible IER strategies. Data from 450 adolescents (151 from Türkiye, 144 from the Netherlands, 155 from the UK; Mage = 14.71 years, SD = 1.59, age range: 11–17 years) was collected between March 2023 and March 2024 through an online study using four vignettes and associated rating and open-ended questions. Adolescents had higher intentions to regulate emotions of their best friend than their mother and emotions of fear than sadness. Turkish adolescents were less likely to regulate others’ emotions than Dutch and British adolescents. Adolescents were more likely to use response modification for fear and situation modification for sadness in coded and rated IER strategies. Adolescents were more likely to use cognitive engagement, attentional deployment, humor, and response modulation to regulate their best friend’s rather than their mother’s emotions. Turkish adolescents referred to response modulation IER strategies to regulate others’ emotions while Dutch and particularly British adolescents used cognitive engagement. The repertoire of different IER strategies used did not increase with age. Overall, these results highlight significant contextual effects on adolescents’ IER.

Parenting is a cornerstone of adolescent development, influencing emotional, cognitive, and social outcomes. Among various parenting styles, tiger parenting—characterized by high expectations, strict rules, and an emphasis on discipline, academic achievement, and extra-curricular activities over all other aspects—has received significant attention in both academic and societal discussions. However, existing research on parenting styles has predominantly focused on investigating Baumrind’s models of parenting styles and their impact on adolescents’ socio-emotional development, including emotion regulation. Studies specifically examining tiger parenting have primarily focused on the academic outcomes and psychological well-being of children and adolescents, leaving a gap in our understanding of its effects on adolescents’ emotion regulation and behaviors such as bullying. Moreover, research on tiger parenting has mainly concentrated on Asian-American populations, with insufficient attention given to the local Chinese context. Therefore, this pre-registered study aims to explore the implications of tiger parenting on the development of emotion regulation and involvement in bullying episodes among adolescents living in mainland China. Participants in the current study include approximately 800 adolescent-parent pairs from various cities, categorized by region and city-tier in mainland China. The adolescents involved are aged 12-18 years, covering grades 7 through 12. Data were collected through online self-reports by adolescents and parental-reports by their parents, measuring the adoption of tiger parenting style, adolescents’ emotion regulation, and bullying behaviors (both perpetration & victimization). Analyses were conducted at the family unit level, with data from adolescents and their parents paired as one family unit. The research hypothesizes that tiger parenting negatively affects the development of emotion regulation in adolescents, which may, in turn, impact their involvement in bullying behaviors. The study also hypothesizes that factors such as location, parental educational level, gender, and number of siblings may moderate the relationship between tiger parenting and bullying involvement.

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation (IER) is conceptualized as an important socio-emotional ability. Therefore, the aim of this cross-cultural study was to examine associations between IER and adaptive-maladaptive developmental correlates among adolescents. Specifically, we looked at the associations between adolescents’ intention to regulate the emotions of their best friends and mothers, their interpersonal emotion regulation repertoire, and prosocial versus antisocial behaviors. Participants are N = 450 adolescents (Mage = 14.71 years, SD = 1.59, age range: 11-17 years, 59% female) from Türkiye (N = 151), the Netherlands (N = 144) and the UK (N = 155). IER was measured with four vignettes that included situations in which either a mother or a best friend experienced fear or sadness. Participants rated their intention to regulate and subsequently described which emotion regulation strategies they would use. Prosocial and antisocial behaviors were measured with the Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire. A regression analysis showed that IER explained a significant proportion of variance in prosocial behavior, (R2=.07, F(2,419)=15.60, p<.001). Adolescents with a broader IER repertoire reported higher levels of prosocial behaviors (B = 0.10, SE = .02, p < .001), whereas the intention to regulate did not predict prosocial behaviors (B = .06, SE = .04, p = .183). IER also explained a significant proportion of variance in antisocial behavior, (R2=.21, F(2,24)= 9.98, p<.001). Although IER repertoire did not predict antisocial behaviors (B = 0.10, SE = .03, p = .597), adolescents who were more inclined to regulate the emotions of their best friend and mothers, reported less antisocial behaviors (B = -0.27, SE = .06, p < .001). These findings show that aspects of IER are differentially related to prosocial and antisocial behaviors during adolescence. Follow-up analyses will be conducted to examine cross-cultural differences in the strength of these associations.