Abstract

PEREZ DIAZ, Yudit; GUERRA MORALES, Vivian Margarita; ZAMORA FLEITES, Yanni  and  GRAU ABALO, Ricardo. Emotional regulation in adolescents with essential hypertension. Rev cubana med [online]. 2014, vol.53, n.4, pp. 392-401. ISSN 0034-7523.

Introduction: current researches acknowledge the need to provide timely and comprehensive care to children who have essential hypertension from the health care standpoint. In studies with hypertensive adolescents, emotional regulation has emerged as a possible risk factor associated with the course and outcome of this disease. Objective: To characterize emotion regulation in adolescents with essential hypertension. Methods: 20 hypertensive adolescents were studied. They were compared with 20 normotensive adolescents. Psychological techniques used were such as: scale difficulties in emotional regulation, in Spanish, for teens; structured interview; trait anxiety inventory-state, the kid version (IDAREN); Kovacs Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and inventory of expressions of the state-trait anger, child-teen (STAXI-II CA) version. For data analysis, SPSS version 15.0 was used, through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: hypertensive adolescents had difficulties in emotion regulation and poor repertoire of strategies, their use was inflexible, rumination and repression predominated. These difficulties had the greatest impact on levels of anxiety and depression prone to adjustment problems, which affected the emotional well-being of these patients. The found characteristics of emotion regulation in hypertensive adolescents distinguished them from the group of normotensive adolescents. Conclusions: hypertensive adolescents are characterized by ineffective regulation of emotions, especially anxiety and sadness, which affects their emotional well-being and increases their vulnerability to disease.

Keywords : adolescents; hypertension; emotional regulation.

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