Relationships Between Emotion Regulation and Depression in High and Low Worriers

Abstract

The comorbid diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression is highly prevalent. Examining relationships between emotion regulation factors and depression in individuals high in trait worry (the cardinal symptom of GAD) may contribute to our understanding of this comorbidity. In the current study, we aimed to determine whether two emotion regulation factors—reappraisal (i.e., reinterpreting experiences) and suppression (i.e., not expressing emotion)—were associated with depression differentially in high versus low worriers. Participants were 206 high and low worriers (112 high worriers; 94 low worriers) recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website. Participants completed measures assessing reappraisal, suppression, and depression. Regression models revealed that among high worriers, low reappraisal was associated with higher depression, but that among low worriers, reappraisal was not associated with depression. In contrast, suppression was not differentially associated with depression in high and low worriers; higher suppression was associated with higher depression in both high and low worriers. These results are consistent with the idea that reappraisal may represent an especially helpful emotion regulation strategy for high worriers, potentially buffering against the negative effects of worry on depression.