Neuro emotional literacy program: Does teaching the function of affect and affect regulation strategies improve affect management and well-being?

Although research on Emotion Regulation (ER) is developing at a rapid rate, much of it lacks a clear theoretical framework and most focuses on a narrow set of ER strategies. This work presents the details of a pilot project, the Neuro Emotional Literacy Program (NELP), designed for parents and based on the Somatic Appraisal Model of Affect (SAMA). This 6-week parent program used two self-report questionnaires, the Positive Negative Affect Schedule Short-Form (PANAS-SF) and the newly created Personal Affect Regulation Capacity Inventory (PARCI) to collect pre- and post-workshop data. Pilot project data analysis indicates that parents’ knowledge of the function and actuation of brain-body affect and expansion of their practice to include several ER strategies helps improve emotion management and promotes positive affect, as measured by PANAS-SF and PARCI.