Adolescence is a transitional period during which a child undergoes social and emotional changes, adding a layer of vulnerability to increased anxiety symptoms. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the daily lives of many, confining adolescents to their homes and away from in-person social relationships. Parents play a critical role in supporting their children’s emotion regulation via strategies including reappraisal, emotion suppression, and rumination. Our analyses examined 198 participants (Mage = 17.15, SD = 1.82; 60.6% female, 38.9% male, 0.5% another gender). For the current study, parents reported on how the pandemic impacted their families in 2020 (T1), and adolescents reported on parent support of emotion regulation throughout the pandemic and adolescent anxiety symptoms two years later (T7). We tested the hypothesis that greater emotion regulation support, particularly via reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy consistently associated with positive emotional outcomes, will be associated with lower child reported anxiety levels. We also explored associations between suppression and rumination, framed as relatively maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and adolescent anxiety. In addition, we tested the impact of COVID-19 as a moderator. There was a strong negative correlation between parent support for reappraisal and adolescent anxiety symptoms. The magnitude of this effect was greater among families more impacted by the pandemic. Results highlight the importance of adaptive parent support for emotion regulation in adolescents.
