When and How to Regulate: Everyday Emotion-Regulation Strategy Use and Stressor Intensity

Emotion regulation use in daily-life and its association with success of emotion-regulation, self-efficacy, stress, and state rumination

Introduction

Investigations on emotion regulation strategies (ERS) primarily focus on the influence of instructed emotion regulation (ER) on outcomes. However, recent work has shown that selection of ERS is dependent on, e.g., situational demands and personal resources.

Methods

In this current investigation, we used an online diary to investigate ERS used by free choice and their association with ER-success, stress and rumination. We identified four factors of ERS: cognitive perspective change, cognitive-behavioral problem-solving, suppression-distraction and body-social ERS. Associations of ERS with stress, state-rumination and ER-success were investigated using multilevel-mixed-models, allowing to separate within- and between-subject effects.

Results

Our results show that, on a within-subject level, all adaptive ERS were positively associated with ER-success, while maladaptive ERS as well as higher stress and state rumination were negatively associated with ER-success. On the other hand, only within-subject cognitive ERS were associated with higher self-efficacy. Maladaptive ERS-use was consequently positively associated with stress and state rumination. Surprisingly, only cognitive perspective change ERS were negatively associated with state rumination. Cognitive-behavioral problem-solving was positively associated with stress and success of emotion regulation.

Discussion

We interpret these results in the light of situational constraints of ERS-use and the importance of the assessment of these in future studies.

Emotion regulation strategies and coping self-efficacy as moderators of daily associations between transgender and gender diverse (TGD) enacted stigma and affect among TGD young adults assigned female at birth

BACKGROUND

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies have begun to establish links between sexual minority enacted stigma and anxious/depressed affect at the daily level. However, few of these studies have examined the effects of the unique stigma experienced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. Further, the potential moderating roles of emotion regulation strategies (i.e., strategies used to up- or down-regulate emotions) and coping self-efficacy (i.e., individuals' perceptions of their ability to cope effectively with stressors) have been neglected in EMA research on enacted stigma.

METHODS

The current study aimed to extend this literature by examining the moderating roles of six emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reflection, reappraisal, rumination, expressive suppression, distraction, social sharing) and coping self-efficacy on concurrent and prospective associations between TGD enacted stigma and affect using EMA data from 115 sexual minority gender diverse individuals assigned female at birth.

RESULTS

Results indicated that coping self-efficacy buffered prospective associations between TGD enacted stigma and anxious/depressed affect, while rumination exacerbated these effects. Some unexpected buffering effects were identified in concurrent associations between enacted stigma and negative affect, with suppression and distraction temporarily tempering this association. However, suppression also prospectively predicted increases in negative affect, suggesting that any benefit of this emotion regulation strategy is temporary.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings highlight emotion regulation strategies that may be effective in reducing negative affect, identify coping self-efficacy as a promising buffer of effects of enacted stigma, and confirm emotion regulation strategies that may exacerbate effects of enacted stigma.

The role of affective control, strategy repertoire and subjective emotion regulation success in developmental internalising psychopathology

Adolescence poses significant challenges for emotion regulation (ER) and is thus a critical phase in the emergence of various mental disorders, specifically internalising disorders such as anxiety and depression. Affective control, defined as the application of cognitive control in affective contexts, is crucial for effective ER. However, the relationship between ER and affective control is unclear. This study examined the predictive role of ER strategies and difficulties in affective control, measured as the congruency effect and error rate on an Emotional Stroop task (EST), in a sample of adolescents and young adults (aged 14-21, M = 17.28, 22% male). It was hypothesised that participants with internalising disorders would show higher congruency effects and error rates on the EST than healthy controls after a psychosocial stress induction, indicating lower affective control. Surprisingly, our findings revealed no significant differences in these measures between the groups. However, higher depression scores were associated with increased EST errors. While ER strategies and difficulties did not predict affective control, exploratory analyses unveiled associations between depression scores and ER strategy repertoire, perceived ER success and the ER strategy Acceptance. These findings underscore the importance of implicit ER facets, particularly perceived ER success and flexibility to change between applied strategies for adolescents and young adults with elevated depressive symptoms.

An integrative analysis of potential mechanisms of reduced positive affect in daily life in depression: an ESM study

Decreased levels of positive affect (PA) are a hallmark of depression. Current models propose as potential main mechanisms a dysfunctional use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies (i.e. dampening, positive rumination), and a maladaptive activation of pro-hedonic goals. However, the role of these mechanisms in PA in daily life remains understudied. We used a 10-day ESM design to assess how these mechanisms influence each other and contribute to depressive symptomatology-related low momentary PA in 139 individuals. Higher depressive symptoms were associated with lower PA, pro-hedonic goals, more frequent use of positive rumination, and higher use of dampening. Further, experiencing higher levels of PA predicted lower following time point use of dampening in individuals with higher symptoms. Finally, using positive rumination was more beneficial (i.e. predicted higher PA increases one moment later) for individuals with higher symptomatology. Our findings suggest that moment-to-moment changes in PA daily life are affected by, and have an effect on, both pro-hedonic goals and the use of dampening and positive rumination, highlighting specific cognitive-affective mechanisms that should be considered when designing interventions aimed at improving low PA characterising depression symptomatology.

Prospective examination of mechanisms linking minority stress and anxious/depressed affect at the event level: The roles of emotion regulation strategies and proximal minority stressors

BACKGROUND

While studies have linked sexual minority stress with anxious/depressed affect, few studies have prospectively examined how mechanistic processes linking minority stress and anxious/depressed affect unfold in near-real time. Furthermore, studies of mechanisms have focused exclusively on rumination and proximal minority stressors (e.g., internalized stigma). This limits our understanding of other potential mechanisms, such as decreases in the use of reappraisal and reflection, strategies associated with reducing anxious/depressed affect.

METHOD

We used data from a 30-day ecological momentary assessment study with 429 sexual minority women and gender diverse sexual minorities assigned female at birth to determine whether concurrent and prospective event-level associations between minority stress and anxious/depressed affect were mediated by changes in six emotion regulation strategies, perceived coping efficacy, and proximal stressors.

RESULTS

In partially lagged analyses, when individuals experienced enacted or internalized stigma, they reported increased rumination and expressive suppression on the same day, which predicted increases in anxious/depressed affect into the next day. Decreases in reappraisal also mediated partially lagged associations between internalized stigma and anxious/depressed affect. Fully lagged mediation was only demonstrated for rumination as a mechanism linking internalized stigma with anxious/depressed affect. We found concurrent evidence for other mechanisms (i.e., perceived coping efficacy, reflection, internalized stigma, and rejection sensitivity).

CONCLUSIONS

Results provided support for the roles of rumination and expressive suppression as mechanisms of linking minority stress and anxious/depressed affect. The concurrent evidence for other mechanisms suggests that future research with more temporal resolution is necessary to determine the temporality and directionality of these associations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Affect and mental health across the lifespan during a year of the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of emotion regulation strategies and mental flexibility

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in common mental health problems compared to prepandemic levels, especially in young people. Understanding the factors that place young people at risk is critical to guide the response to increased mental health problems. Here we examine whether age-related differences in mental flexibility and frequency of use of emotion regulation strategies partially account for the poorer affect and increased mental health problems reported by younger people during the pandemic. Participants (N = 2,367; 11-100 years) from Australia, the UK, and US were surveyed thrice at 3-month intervals between May 2020 and April 2021. Participants completed measures of emotion regulation, mental flexibility, affect, and mental health. Younger age was associated with less positive (b = 0.008, p < .001) and more negative (b = -0.015, p < .001) affect across the first year of the pandemic. Maladaptive emotion regulation partially accounted for age-related variance in negative affect (β = -0.013, p = .020), whereby younger age was associated with more frequent use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, which, in turn, was associated with more negative affect at our third assessment point. More frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and in turn, changes in negative affect from our first to our third assessment, partially accounted for age-related variance in mental health problems (β = 0.007, p = .023). Our findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the vulnerability of younger people during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that emotion regulation may be a promising target for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion regulation in daily life in early psychosis: The role of contextual appraisals

BACKGROUND

Little is known about whether and how contextual appraisals relate to emotion regulation (ER) strategy use across the ultra-high risk and first episode stages of psychosis. The present study extends previous research by investigating the extent to which different appraisal dimensions of the most negative and positive events of the day are associated with ER strategy use in individuals with ultra-high risk (UHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP).

METHOD

Sixty-eight UHR individuals and fifty-five FEP individuals filled out an experience sampling evening questionnaire for six consecutive days, in which their appraisal of intensity, importance and perceived control concerning the most negative or positive event of the day, and the ER strategies they deploy in response to these events were measured.

RESULTS

Multilevel mixed effect models showed that intensity appraisal was most closely associated with ER strategy use, as opposed to importance and controllability appraisals. Higher intense negative events were associated with more rumination and social sharing, while less intense negative events were associated with more reappraisal. Higher intense positive events were associated with a greater number of deployed strategies and more efforts in using savoring, expression and social sharing. The UHR and FEP individuals did not significantly differ regarding effects of above-mentioned appraisal dimensions on ER.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide evidence supporting ER flexibility in early psychosis, and event intensity emerged as the dimension most strongly associated with ER. Future research should better account for other situational factors (such as social context) that might affect ER use in psychosis.

Emotional regulation strategies in daily life: the intensity of emotions and regulation choice

Objective

Emotion regulation is an adaptive ability affecting people's physical and mental health, quality of life and functioning. In the present study we focused on the influence of the intensity of experienced emotions on emotion regulation strategies (ERS) that are applied in everyday life.

Methods

For 7 days the participants kept an online diary where every day they described the situation which had aroused their strongest negative emotions. Next, they identified the emotions, their intensity and the type of applied strategies (acceptance vs. reappraisal vs. rumination vs. distraction vs. suppression). The study involved 88 people N = 88, which gives 538 observations.

Results

The obtained results indicate that the intensity of emotions affects the choice of regulation strategies. When the intensity increases, people are more likely to choose the rumination strategy and less likely to choose the reappraisal strategy. However, the expected relationship between the intensity and the number of regulation strategies was not confirmed. In turn, it was gender (male) that turned out to be associated with a greater number of strategies used.

Conclusion

The concern of this research was to look at making regulatory decisions in personally relevant and complex everyday situations. Although the emotions experienced in response to a difficult situation were varied, the intensity of the emotional experience was an important factor determining the choice of a regulation strategy. It indicates that this emotional dimension is a basic and determining aspect in people's regulatory capabilities. These results also indicate that perhaps men in a situation perceived as stressful and worthy of emotional involvement use more regulatory strategies than women. These findings may find an application in all kinds of psychological interventions (e.g., psychotherapy, anger management therapies).

The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Negative Emotions Among Chinese Medical College Students: The Mediating Role of Fear of Missing Out and the Moderating Role of Resilience

Objective

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of fear of missing out (FoMO) and the moderating role of resilience in the association between social media use and negative emotions among medical college students in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants and Methods

A cross-sectional study design was conducted, medical college students from Qiqihar Medical University, China participated in the study. A total of 470 medical college students were recruited voluntarily to complete questionnaires on social media use, FoMO, resilience, and negative emotions.

Results

Social media use was positively associated with FoMO and negative emotions among medical students (p < 0.01). The total effect of social media use on negative emotions was significant (β = 1.101, SE = 0.079, p < 0.001). Social media use had no significant direct effect on negative emotions (β = 0.168, SE = 0.096, p > 0.05), but it had an indirect effect on negative emotions via mediation of FoMO (β = 0.933, SE = 0.106, 95% CI: 0.731 to 1.149). Moreover, resilience had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between FoMO and negative emotions (β = -0.021, SE = 0.005, 95% CI: -0.032 to -0.012). FoMO had a significant positive predictive effect on negative emotions at both levels of resilience (low resilience individuals: β = 1.079, SE = 0.076, p < 0.001; high resilience individuals: β = 0.212, SE = 0.094, p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Social media use and FoMO may be risk factors for increased negative emotions, and resilience should be considered in prevention and intervention strategies designed to mitigate negative emotions among medical college students.