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26 - Clinical Treatments for Child Emotional Disorders and the Development of Coping

The Case of Irritability

from Part VI - Application and the Development of Coping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2023

By
Maria Kangas  and
Ronald M. Rapee
Edited by
Ellen A. Skinner  and
Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck
Ellen A. Skinner
Affiliation:
Portland State University
Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland
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Summary

Difficulties in coping and emotion regulatory strategies are related to both internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents. Recurring, elevated irritability is a core transdiagnostic feature of these psychological problems, and has been documented to be a predictor of psychopathology. In this chapter, we discuss the role of emotion regulation and coping in the development and management of emotion disorders in childhood and the relevancy to further advancing our understanding of chronic irritability in youth. We outline two related conceptual models for irritability in children and adolescents, extended to include the role of coping, in order to have utility in further shaping the evidence base in this field. We also evaluate published treatment studies that have tested the efficacy of psychotherapy programs in managing elevated levels of irritability disturbances in children and adolescents including youth with more severe levels of symptoms captured by the disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) diagnosis. Treatments with the most promising findings to date include cognitive-behavioral based programs that include individual and/or interpersonal emotion regulatory, coping, and prosocial skills training components. Given that the evidence base in this field is in its infancy, we conclude by discussing future research recommendations.

Keywords

emotion regulationirritabilitymood dysregulationcopingyouth
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Development of Coping , pp. 612 - 640
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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