Difficulties in Emotion Regulation as a Barrier to Resilience: Therapeutic Implications

Abstract

Enhancing psychological well-being and human functioning is not just a matter of eradicating weaknesses but instilling positive attributes among individuals. Researchers have been exploring factors associated with psychological well-being and findings ways to incorporate those positive ones into the organism’s behavioral system. Among other factors, resilience emerged as a significant correlate of psychological well-being, and advantageously research demonstrates that resilience can be enhanced by Connor and Davidson. Resilience is considered as a dynamic process referring to the maintenance of positive adjustment under threatening life circumstances. It is the ability to bounce back after disappointments or setbacks, to be adaptable and flexible and to renew a sense of vitality. Psychological resilience promotes personal assets and protects an individual from the potential negative effect of stressors. Thus, enhancing resilience can be an outcome goal of the interventions applied by psychologists to improve well-being of the individuals in different work settings. To achieve the goal, factors associated with resilience must be understood and manipulated. Among others, one such potential factor may be the ability to regulate one’s emotion. In the present study, difficulties in emotion regulation were studied in relation to resilience among adults. The primary objective of this study was to explore the relationship among difficulties in emotional regulation and resilience. It was hypothesized that resilience would be negatively associated with different types of difficulties pertaining to emotional regulation. To test the hypotheses, 135 individual working in different sectors within the age range of 24–42 years (M = 30.04, SD = 2.24) were administered two scales namely Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). The correlational and regression analysis was applied to test the hypotheses. Findings indicate that difficulties in emotion regulation are significantly associated with resilience among Indian adults. Individuals facing more difficulties in regulating their emotions scored less on resilience scales. The result implies that if effective emotion regulation skills can be instilled through some training, their resilience would also be affected. Future studies targeting those difficulties can be designed and tested for the efficacy of certain intervention programmes to enhance emotion regulation skills and its subsequent effects on 96the resilience. Some of the key ingredients of an effective intervention programme would be discussed in the paper.