Music's Role in Emotional Expression Following Childhood Emotional Invalidation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.4230Keywords:
emotional resilience, adolescent development, adolescent psychology, developmental psychology, adolescent mental health, emotional development, music, music therapy, Music and emotion, music psychology, music-induced emotion, musical expression, creative expression, music and self-expression, music and emotional processing, neural mechanisms of emotion, neural correlates of emotion regulation, music neuroscience, prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), prefrontal-limbic connectivity, imbic system, emotion-processing networks, neural connectivity, brain development, neuroplasticity, emotional expression in adolescents, emotion regulation in adolescents, music therapy and childhood trauma, music therapy and emotional neglect, emotional expression following childhood emotional invalidation, childhood invalidation and music, childhood invalidation and emotional suppression, emotional processing after childhood adversityAbstract
Childhood emotional validation (CEI) is characterized by an environment in which emotional expression is discouraged and a child's emotions are regularly dismissed. CEI is consistently associated with difficulties in emotional regulation, awareness, and expression. Music has demonstrated potential to assist individuals with emotional regulation; however, its role in facilitating emotional expression in adolescents and young adults with a history of CEI remains insufficiently understood. This literature review examined how CEI influences the neural and psychological processes of emotional regulation and whether music has the potential to facilitate emotional expression in adolescents and young adults with a history of CEI. Twenty-two studies including peer-reviewed articles, reviews, meta-analyses, and dissertations that met the inclusion criteria were included in the review. These studies were found through Google Scholar, PubMed, and ProQuest using search terms related to childhood emotional invalidation, emotional regulation, emotional expression, music therapy, music, neuroscience, and affective neuroscience. The literature shows that CEI and childhood adversity are connected to emotional suppression, dysregulation, and changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Music has been found to engage overlapping neural networks related to emotion, promoting emotional processing, regulation, and increasing emotional expressivity by enhancing one's felt emotion. These findings suggest that music may be able to facilitate emotional expression following CEI. Direct evidence connecting CEI and music is still limited, so further research is needed to fully understand music’s potential to support emotional expression.
References
Elzy, M. B. (2013). Emotional invalidation: An investigation into its definition, measurement, and effects (Doctoral dissertation, University of South Florida). https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?httpsredir=1&article=5867&context=etd
Crowell, S. E., Beauchaine, T. P., & Linehan, M. M. (2009). A biosocial developmental model of borderline personality: Elaborating and extending Linehan's theory. Psychological Bulletin, 135(3), 495–510. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015616
Amini Tehrani, A., Mazidi, M., Ranjbar, S., Ohan, J., Weinborn, M., & Naragon-Gainey, K. (2026). Meta-analysis of associations between childhood emotional abuse and adulthood emotion regulation. Clinical Psychology Review, 128, Article 102778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2026.102778
Childhood Emotional Invalidation, Self-Concept Clarity, Emotion Dysregulation, and Psychological Distress in Adulthood - ProQuest. (2025). In Proquest.com. https://www.proquest.com/openview/fc944de5a16233d47db3a7961864d95b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Tyra, M. N. (2016). The Effect of Ostracism and the Influence of Childhood Emotional Invalidation on Impulsivity: An EEG Study. Scholar Commons. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/aiken_psychology_theses/31/
Gross, J. T., & Cassidy, J. (2019). Expressive suppression of negative emotions in children and adolescents: Theory, data, and a guide for future research. Developmental Psychology, 55(9), 1938–1950. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000722
Bae, H., Yim, M., Kim, G., & Hur, J.-W. (2026). From childhood maltreatment to depression and anxiety: a network approach focusing on perceived emotional invalidation. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-04075-7
Weissman, D. G., Bitran, D., Miller, A. B., Schaefer, J. D., Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2019). Difficulties with emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking child maltreatment with the emergence of psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 31(3), 899–915. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579419000348
The Impact of Invalidating Childhood Environments on Emotion Regulation and Defense Mechanisms in College Students - ProQuest. (2025). Proquest.Com. https://www.proquest.com/openview/bafa90a6e3dcc5250a2b6fb60bbad6ec/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Haag, A.-C., Rohini Bagrodia, & Bonanno, G. A. (2024). Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Adolescents: A Systematic Review from Conceptualization to Methodology. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-024-00483-6
Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., & Gross, J. J. (2008). The Neural Bases of Emotion Regulation: Reappraisal and Suppression of Negative Emotion. Biological Psychiatry, 63(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031
McLaughlin, K. A., Peverill, M., Gold, A. L., Alves, S., & Sheridan, M. A. (2015). Child Maltreatment and Neural Systems Underlying Emotion Regulation. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(9), 753–762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.06.010
Teicher, M. H., Samson, J. A., Anderson, C. M., & Ohashi, K. (2016). The effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure, function and connectivity. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(10), 652–666. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.111
Gruhn, M. A., & Compas, B. E. (2020). Effects of maltreatment on coping and emotion regulation in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review. Child Abuse & Neglect, 103(104446), 104446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104446
Goldsmith, H. H., Pollak, S. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Developmental neuroscience perspectives on emotion regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 2(3), 132-140. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2756715/pdf/nihms146428.pdf
Vista de Why I listen to music: Emotion regulation and identity construction through music in mid-adolescence. (2024). In Uned.es. https://revistas.uned.es/index.php/empiria/article/view/39285/28744
Schubert, E. (2013). Emotion felt by the listener and expressed by the music: literature review and theoretical perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00837
Hou, J., Song, B., Chen, A. C. N., Sun, C., Zhou, J., Zhu, H., & Beauchaine, T. P. (2017). Review on Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation and Music: Implications for Emotion Dysregulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00501
Rodwin, A. H., Shimizu, R., Travis, R., James, K. J., Banya, M., & Munson, M. R. (2022). A Systematic Review of Music-Based Interventions to Improve Treatment Engagement and Mental Health Outcomes for Adolescents and Young Adults. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 40(40). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00893-x
Graham, S. (2011). The Effect of Music Therapy on the Emotional Expressivity of Children and Adolescents Who Have Experienced Abuse or Neglect. http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-4058
Hou, J., Song, B., Chen, A. C. N., Sun, C., Zhou, J., Zhu, H., & Beauchaine, T. P. (2017). Review on Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation and Music: Implications for Emotion Dysregulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00501
Kurtzman, G. (2019). Trauma-focused CBT informed music therapy: Connecting traumatized youth with affective modulation—Developing a method. https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1141&context=expressive_theses
Downloads
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Research Archive of Rising Scholars
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
