title: Emotional Regulation and Executive Function Deficits in Unmedicated Chinese Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to explore the feature of emotional regulation and executive functions in oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The emotional regulation and executive functions of adolescents with ODD, as well as the relationship between the two factors were analyzed using tools including Adolescent Daily Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ADERQ), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), in comparison with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children without behavioral problem and healthy children; the ADERQ assessed emotional regulation ability and others were used to assess executive function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to normal children, the ODD group displayed significant differences in the scores of cognitive reappraisal, rumination, expressive suppression, and revealing of negative emotions, as well as in the score of cognitive reappraisal of positive emotions. WCST perseverative errors were well correlated with rumination of negative emotions (r=0.47). Logistic regression revealed that the minimum number of moves in the Stocking of Cambridge (SOC) test (one test in CANTAB) and negative emotion revealing, were strongly associated with ODD diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children with ODD showed emotion dysregulation, with negative emotion dysregulation as the main feature. Emotion dysregulation and the lack of ability to plan lead to executive function deficits. The executive function deficits may guide us to understand the deep mechanism under ODD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wenqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yasong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
keywords: Emotion regulation; Executive functions; Oppositional defiant disorder