Emotions are important in providing motivation for our goals. They can affect our memory and decisions about how we interact with our environment and other people. However emotions also need regulating, for example by telling ourselves we don’t need to be scared of a spider as it is on the television. Difficulties in regulating emotion are increasingly being recognised as a key factor behind many mental health issues and can have negative effects more widely on academic performance, personal relationships and well-being.

Adolescence is an important time for developing the ability to regulate emotions. Changes in the brain related to cognitive, social and emotional control lead to the development of new regulation strategies. Adolescence is also when many mental health issues begin, making it an important time to investigate emotion regulation. Here, we aim to identify how different aspects of emotion regulation relate to developing cognitive control abilities, such as the ability to inhibit impulsive responses.

Studies of individuals that link brain and behaviour to genetic variation in a handful of pre-specified genes have provided early evidence of a role for genetic influences on emotion regulation. As yet, no studies have assessed the bulk contribution of common genetic variation to emotion regulation, or surveyed the entire genome in an unbiased way to identify specific genetic variants associated with emotion regulation. Understanding genetic influences underpinning emotional regulation will enable us to link genes, the brain and behaviour to better understand how brain systems develop during this critical period.