EXAMINATION OF ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE COGNITIVE EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES AS TRANSDIAGNOSTIC PROCESSES: ASSOCIATIONS WITH DIVERSE PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Emotion regulation can be defined as the intrinsic and extrinsic processes associated with the activation of an emotion and its management over time (Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004; Gross, 2014). Emotion regulation strategies play a central role in determining human behavior since they have a pervasive impact on the functioning of an individual, influencing the adaptive or maladaptive role of a given emotional experience in a particular context (Cicchetti, Ganiban, & Barnett, 1991; Cole et al., 2004; Gross, 2014). Accordingly, emotion regulation has been referred to as a transdiagnostic process (Aldao, 2012; Sloan & Kring, 2010), because many psychological disorders are characterized by problems related to emotion and emotion regulation (Werner & Gross, 2010). Transdiagnostic processes are common factors that cut across different disorders and that underlie their development and/or course (Iverach, Menzies, & Menzies, 2014; Sloan & Kring, 2010). Indeed, recent research on psychopathology has shifted away from analyzing factors that are specific to each individual psychological disorder to investigating common underlying dimensions of functioning (Caspi et al., 2014; Hong & Cheung, 2014). For example, accumulating evidence shows that information processing biases are transdiagnostic processes because they occur in a variety of disorders, like anxiety, depression, oppositional defiant disorder or eating disorders (Aspen, Darcy, & Lock, 2013; Fraire & Ollendick, 2013). Specific to emotion regulation it is thought that maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., avoidance) increase the risk of psychopathology in general, while adaptive strategies (e.g., problem solving) function as protective factors (Aldao & NolenHoeksema, 2010; Garnefski & Kraaij, 2007). The present investigation was designed in accordance with this framework and aimed to explore the relation between adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and a multitude of psychological symptoms.There is some support for the distinction between adaptive (e.g., reappraisal) and maladaptive (e.g., rumination) cognitive emotion regulation strategies (Aldao, 2012; Dominguez-Sanchez et al., 2013; Jermann et al., 2006; Werner & Gross, 2010, cf. Campos, Walle, Dahl, & Main, 2011; Tuna & Bozo, 2012). Indeed, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies seem to be reliably associated with in cr ea sed psych opathology (Aldao & Nol en -Hoeksem a , 2012a; Joormann, Yoon, & Siemer, 2010; Werner & Gross, 2010). As for adaptive strategies, the converse would be expected (i.e., reliable negative associations with psychopathology) but this finding is less consistent. In some studies, no relation between adaptive strategies and psychopathology is reported (Dominguez-Sanchez et al., 2013; Ehring, Tuschen-Caffier, Schnulle, Fischer, & Gross, 2010; Green et al., 2011). In a meta-analytic review, using normative and clinical samples, adaptive strategies were found to be associated with decreased psychopathology, but the associations had small to medium effect sizes (Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010). This plethora of results influenced Aldao and Nolen-Hoeksema's (2010) transdiagnostic view of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation, stating that the use of maladaptive strategies might play a more central role in psychopathology than not using adaptive strategies.However, in certain circumstances, adaptive emotion regulation strategies may be relevant (Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012b) or even fundamental for understanding mental disorders. Evidence for this comes from Kelly, Lydecker, and Mazzeo (2012), who show that all adaptive strategies analyzed (with the exception of acceptance) moderated the effect of eating disorder on binge eating frequency, while none of the maladaptive ones did. Also, in a study on resilience in outpatients with depression and anxiety disorders, adaptive strategies were more strongly correlated with resilience than maladaptive strategies (Min, Yu, Lee, & Chae, 2013). …