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Emotion-related regulation is a topic of considerable current interest; however, this was not always true. We briefly discuss the history of interest in the topic and then the current state of the field, including definitions of the construct. In addition, we summarize some of the important issues for future attention, including definitional issues, topics that merit attention, and methodological and design issues. This field of inquiry is flourishing, but it is one that is rapidly expanding and improving in the quality of the research.
Emotion regulation currently is a major topic of study in developmental psychology and related disciplines or subdisciplines. This fact is reflected in the number of books and monographs on the topic that have been (or are being) published in the last decade (e.g., Baumeister & Vohs, 2004; Fox, 1994; Philippot & Feldman, in press). However, the topic was not always a popular one. Before the mid-1980s, discussion of emotion by developmentalists was relatively limited; even more rare were writings on emotion regulation. For example, in 1981, at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, there were no entries in the program index for the terms emotion regulation or delay tasks, and only one paper was under the term self-regulation. In 1989, the category of emotion regulation did not appear in the index; three abstracts were listed under regulation, three abstracts were listed under self-regulation, and one abstract was listed under delay tasks. Fourteen years later in 2003, the category emotion regulation included 53 entries, and self-regulation included 36 entries.
Similarly, only recently has emotion regulation been covered in any depth in developmental psychology or child development textbooks. For example, in two textbooks from the mid to late 1970s (Gardner, 1978; Developmental Psychology Today, 1975), cognitive development dominated the contents, and the chapters related to social-emotional development pertained primarily to attachment relationships. In three textbooks in the early 1980s (Kopp & Krakow, 1982; Mussen, Conger, Kagan, & Huston, 1984; Clarke-Stewart & Koch, 1983), sections on emotion were very limited, although in some there were chapters on social and emotional development (Mussen et al., 1984; Clarke-Stewart & Koch, 1983). Topics such as attachment, moral development, and aggression dominated the space devoted to social and emotional development. However,...