Relationship of the gap between experience and language with mental health in adolescence: the importance of emotion regulation

Abstract

Although past research has provided important information about the relationship between language use and mental health in the period of adolescence, the role of intervening variables in this association has been seriously neglected. The aim of the present study was to illuminate the association between language use (operationalized by the gap between experience and languageGAP) and mental health (e.g., adjustment and depression, with the mediator role of emotion regulation). Three-hundred-and-seventy-four adolescents (220 female, 154 male; 16.08 mean age) participated in the study. The results provided support for the mediator role of emotion regulation in the relationship between GAP and mental health. Moreover, it was shown that the relationship between emotion regulation and depression was mediated by adjustment.