sentence structure that i can't understand.
- David Larame, the author of the 2007disssertation, told Wired that the younger people in his study were more likely to experience the phenomenon, as were the ones who constantly looked at their phones as a way of regulating their emotions.

I have 3 questions about this sentence.
1. are the younger people and the ones the same group or the different groups?
2. how can I interpret this sentence structure of "Subject+ Verb, as Verb Subject" like the sentence above?
3. what does to regulate emotions mean?

Question

sentence structure that i can't understand.
- David Larame, the author of the 2007disssertation, told Wired that the younger people in his study were more likely to experience the phenomenon, as were the ones who constantly looked at their phones as a way of regulating their emotions.

I have 3 questions about this sentence.
1. are the younger people and the ones the same group or the different groups?
2. how can I interpret this sentence structure of "Subject+ Verb, as Verb Subject" like the sentence above?
3. what does to regulate emotions mean?

Answer

1. It would be clearer from the context of the full article, but it seems that the younger people and the phone-watchers are different groups. Maybe they overlap to some degree.

2. It's not exactly the structure you described.  The pattern is this:  "Subject+ Verb, as Auxiliary Verb + Subject"

This little inversion allows us to join the two phrases to say both phrases have the same situation. If we split the sentence into two sentences, they'll look like this:  "...the younger people in his study were more likely to experience the phenomenon.  The ones who constantly looked at their phones as a way of regulating their emotions were (more likely), too."

Some more examples:
"He began to run, as did the other competitors."  (Compare: "He began to run. The other competitors began to run as well.")
"She'll come early, as will her friends." (Compare: "She'll come early. Her friends will come early, too.")

3. "Regulate their emotions" means to keep their emotions under control, and probably not become angry or upset.