When you look at how kids handle emotional moments, their basic, everyday ability to focus when they are calm matters. Throughout this study, researchers found that older youth struggled more with emotional focus than younger children, which contradicts typical developmental expectations that older children have better self-regulation. “The teenage years are very emotional already,” Keller notes. Keller notes that tracking these emotional focus struggles over time will be key to understanding exactly how they shape the trajectory of youth anxiety and depression. Keller conducted the study within the Child Anxiety and Phobia Program alongside Jeremy Pettit, executive director of the Center for Children and Families.