The Effects of Distraction and Reappraisal on the Late Positive Potential Across Discrete Emotions

A Study With Latinx Children

Bibliographic Data

ID9685954
AuthorsLaura E Quiñones-Camacho (0000-0001-5125-210X, The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author), Laura E Quiñones‐Camacho (Department of Educational Psychology The University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas USA), Yelim Hong (0000-0001-8605-914X, Department of Educational Psychology The University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas USA)
Year2025
Volume67
Issue6
Pagese70091-e70091
Publication date2025-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopmental Psychobiology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-1630 • E-ISSN: 1098-2302
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/dev.70091
PMID41116651
OpenAlexW4415373516
LanguageEN
References cited92

This study examined the effects of two emotion regulation (ER) strategies: reappraisal and distraction on the late positive potential (LPP) in a sample of Latinx children ( n = 78, ages 8–11, 50% girls) across sadness, fear, and happiness contexts. We aimed to expand our understanding of ER strategies by (1) examining distraction as a regulatory strategy, (2) assessing discrete emotional contexts rather than aggregating negative emotions, and (3) including Latinx children, an underrepresented demographic in neuroscience and developmental work. Results showed that sadness elicited larger LPP amplitudes than other emotions, highlighting sadness as particularly salient emotion. ER strategies effectively reduced LPP amplitudes for sadness in the early processing window (300–700 ms) but failed to sustain this effect over time (700–3500 ms) and even appeared to intensify neural responses to sadness in later windows, suggesting developmental limitations in children's ability to maintain ER strategies across extended periods. Our findings add to existing work and offer novel and needed evidence of the discrete emotion‐dependent effects of ER strategies on the LPP in children

Distraction · Happiness · Large sample · Late childhood · Sadness · Typically developing · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Early Childhood Education and Development · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior

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