Two thirds of adolescents with mitral valve prolapse (MVP) show signs of anxiety disorders. They display difficulty in emotion regulation (Van Der Ham et al., 2003; Scordo, 2007).

To investigate into emotion regulation strategies in MVP adolescents.

A projective study of emotion regulation was undertaken with our modified version of Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test (Zinchenko, Pervichko, 2014). Thirty-six adolescents with MVP (mean age was 17.1 ± 0.8 years) and 40 healthy adolescents (mean age was 16.7 ± 0.6 years) took part in the study.

MVP adolescents significantly more frequently (P < 0.001) would mark Rosenzweig's situations as potentially traumatizing. Ego-defence (E-D) and extrapunitive (E) reactions appear to be significantly (P < 0.05) more frequent among MVP adolescents. MVP adolescents are more than healthy subjects prone to avoid open verbal revelations of their thoughts and feelings that emerge in the situation of frustration. Content analysis of responses conditioned by cognitive control (when the task was to taper off arbitrarily the traumatizing effect of the situation) revealed that suppression of emotions was displayed by MVP adolescents in 52% of answers, and for healthy participants - 29% of answers (P < 0.001). Cognitive reappraisal strategy was displayed by MVP adolescents in 27% of answers, and for healthy participants – 38% of answers (P < 0.05). Twenty-one percent of answers of MVP adolescents and 33% of answers of healthy participants suggested cognitive transformation of emotional experience and actualization of new meanings in traumatic situations (P < 0.05).

MVP adolescents appear to be more sensitive of frustrations and differ from healthy peers in more frequent use of the strategy of suppression of emotions.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.