Coping strategies play a significant role in childhood development and require investigation. We sought to add to the validity of the Negative Emotion Regulation Inventory (NERI), a questionnaire that assesses coping in specific emotional situations. 105 preadolescents completed an altered version of the NERI and measures of anxiety and parent-child attachment. We tested if the scenarios were related to children’s emotions and coping strategies. We replicated findings that coping varied by emotional situation. As expected, we found significant correlations between coping and anxiety as well as secure parent-child attachment.
These replications provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the adapted NERI and suggest the measure can capture coping strategies. Future studies could use the NERI to identify coping strategies that promote positive mental health.