Content area
Full Text
Keywords
intellectual disabilities,
emotion regulation,
self regulation,
emotional understanding
Abstract
Despite the plethora of published studies on emotion regulation, relatively few have discussed their applicability to individuals with intellectual disability. This paper discusses the components of emotion regulation that have been studied in intellectually disabled populations (emotion development, recognition and understanding, as well as self and behaviour regulation). We conclude with specific recommendations for future studies so that intellectually disabled populations can be represented within the emotion regulation literature.
While providing psychological services for a small group of clients with mild mental retardation or borderline intellectual functioning, we were repeatedly discussing regulation of the clients' emotions during group supervision. At the same time, when our clients engaged in simple mindful meditation techniques at the beginning of group or individual therapy sessions, they appeared more comfortable, relaxed, and focused in session. Practitioner-scholars striving to support our interventions with scientific inquiry, we turned to the empirical literature to support our therapeutic activities. A PsycINFO search of the term intellectual disability identified 2,145 articles published since 2004. However, when the term intellectual disability was combined with emotion regulation, zero articles were identified. Because the term intellectual disability is relatively new and more commonly utilized in the United States, we tried a few more iterations. A search of the terms mental retardation and emotion regulation identified nine articles published since 1999. The terms learning disability and emotion regulation identified three articles published since 1998.
This discrepancy between the quantity of published articles regarding intellectual disability and those that include the key words "emotion regulation" was curious. How could over 2,000 articled have been published about intellectual disability, and even more have been published about emotion regulation (Gross, 2007), yet none of the papers examine the two terms together?
Because emotion regulation is multifaceted, we then looked for components of emotion regulation within the intellectual disability literature to inform our practice. The following, therefore, is a discussion about where clinical applications of emotion regulation exist in the intellectual disability literature even though the term emotion regulation is not directly applied. We conclude with suggestions for how to improve the integration of emotion regulation and intellectual disability literature in the future.
Definitions
Researchers are still debating the definitions of...