Adaptive emotion regulation, academic performance and internalising problems in Flemish children with special educational needs: a pilot study

School readiness of children with special educational needs (SEN) is stillunderstudied. The present study examined how the presumed bidirectionalrelationship between impaired academic performance (AP) and internalisingproblems (IP) could be favourably influenced. In this regard, it was assumed thatchildren’s adaptive emotion regulation plays a crucial role, as it was shown to beindependently related to improved AP and fewer IP. However, to gain strongerevidence for this assumption, it should be further clarified whether adaptiveemotion regulation, AP and IP are also jointly associated and, if so, how this isreflected in children with SEN. To explore these issues, two different modelswere tested in a cross-sectional pilot including 61 Flemish elementary schoolchildren with SEN (39 boys and 22 girls, mean age = 10.0 years old). Teachersreported on adaptive emotion regulation, AP and IP. The results indicated that APpartially mediated the relationship between adaptive emotion regulation and IP(model 1), while IP fully mediated the relationship between adaptive emotionregulation and AP (model 2). Practical implications, strengths, and limitationswere discussed.