Qualitative Characteristics of Emotion Regulation Process in Adolescents with Mitral Valve Prolapse

The purpose of the study was to investigate into peculiarities of emotion regulation in MVP adolescents as subject to specificity of the system of semiotic mediation of emotions. The study comprised 36 adolescents with MVP, mean age was 17,1±0,8 and 40 healthy adolescents, mean age was 16,7±0,6. The method of psychological experiment and psychosemantic method provided methodological background for our study. The data of the study suggests a conclusion that MVP adolescents differ from healthy peers in more frequent use of the mechanism of emotional suppression, in both spontaneous and deliberate reactions. At that MVP adolescents appear to be more sensitive of frustrations, their emotional experience is characterized by greater diffusion. Obtained results indicate that means of emotion regulation in adolescence are closely related to peculiarities of semiotic mediation of emotions. If semantically loaded, the situation of frustration tends to be inadequately assessed by adolescents as excessively traumatizing, which leads to emotional diffusion that cannot be voluntarily regulated.