The prevalence of internalising problems and disorders in girls rises sharply between 10 and 18 years of age, with an onset often occurring during puberty, starting for girls at a mean age of 10 years old onwards. The transition from childhood into early adolescence is a developmental period in which girls experience challenges and difficulties in emotion regulation (ER). Difficulties in ER and the use of maladaptive ER strategies have been associated with heightened negative emotional reactivity and, hence a strong impact on internalising problems. Co-rumination is a goal-directed interpersonal ER strategy that exists within dyadic friendships in which girls disclose distressing worries or problems to downregulate distress.


Co-rumination within girls' friendships increases significantly during early adolescence. Although girls' friendship dyads experience co-rumination as socially rewarding in terms of building trust, emotional intimacy, and support exchange, girls also experience the intrapersonal costs of co-rumination. High levels of co-rumination about distressing experiences and related unpleasant thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, and bodily sensations within close friendships cultivate an attentional bias towards unpleasant information, making girls more prone to noticing unpleasant stimuli. These processes have been linked to greater stress, negative feelings and problem perceptions directly evolving after conversations, rumination, the onset and exacerbation of symptoms of depression and anxiety, clinical depression, as well as the severity and duration of future depression.


The Happy Friends, Positive Minds program, offered via schools and implemented via trained school professionals, is the first prevention program worldwide, developed by Patricia Vuijk and Per Norrgren, aimed at reducing and preventing excessive co-rumination and related mental health complaints among adolescent girls. This presentation will discuss the building blocks and working mechanisms of the program, aimed at supporting girls to restore emotional safety and emotional balance by learning them to introduce safety signals at moments when worries would normally take over. The program reduces the nervous system's dependence on repetitive "talk loops" for regulation and closeness, and supports a shift to a connection that is calmer, clearer, and more sustainable.


Biography


Dr. Patricia Vuijk is Research professor Girls and mental wellbeing at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Together with Per Norrgren, she develops targeted intervention programs for adolescent girls aimed at the prevention of mental health problems and to support mental wellbeing. She is the Principal Investigator of several Randomized Controlled Trials studying the effectiveness of the programs.