Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities are prone to developing emotion dysregulation difficulties. The process model of emotion regulation may offer a comprehensive structure by which to understand this phenomenon. Seventeen children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities participated in semi-structured interviews on their experience of emotion regulation. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data obtained. The applicability of the process model of emotion regulation for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities was confirmed. Additional themes and sub-themes relevant to the model were also identified. Discrepancies in emotion regulation experiences were noted between autistic and non-autistic children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. The process model was found to be relevant to children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. The identified themes and sub-themes could guide the development of outcome measures founded on the model for this population.
