Cognitive Reappraisal Strategies Research Articles

The Role of Cognitive Reappraisal Strategies in Modulating Traumatic Memories

Cognitive reappraisal is a cognitive-behavioral technique that plays a crucial role in modulating emotional responses to traumatic memories, especially in clinical settings treating disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). This paper provides an in-depth exploration of the integration of cognitive reappraisal into therapeutic modalities, including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). It examines the empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of cognitive reappraisal, discusses the challenges and considerations in its clinical application, and highlights the necessity for tailored approaches to enhance therapeutic outcomes. The systematic review of literature reveals that cognitive reappraisal significantly reduces emotional distress and improves psychological functioning, with neurobiological evidence showing changes in brain activity related to emotion processing. Despite its benefits, the effective implementation of cognitive reappraisal faces challenges such as therapist training, patient resistance, cultural considerations, and the need for integration with other therapeutic techniques. Addressing these challenges is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in therapy. This paper underscores the potential of cognitive reappraisal to transform therapeutic practices and enhance mental health care for individuals experiencing trauma-related disorders.

Needs and Coping during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a Government Tertiary Hospital.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the well-being of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families. The core deficits of the condition and increased parental stress during this time made them more vulnerable. This study aims to explore how the pandemic has affected these families by identifying their needs and capabilities in order to provide support. A total of 227 parents of children with ASD completed an online survey consisting of items on socio-demographics, family needs, and coping strategies. Descriptive statistics were used and t-test and ANOVA/Kruskal Wallis were used to determine the relationship between parent and child factors with needs and coping. Needs for Information, Community Services, and Finances are the top categories while the greatest identified need during this pandemic was for financial assistance. Religiosity, Problem-Solving, and Cognitive Reappraisal were the widely used coping strategies by the parents. Fathers, younger children, daughters with ASD, and having more than one child with ASD showed significant association with needs. Parents with primary and tertiary education were associated with use of the cognitive reappraisal strategy and those with jobs were associated with substance use. Families of children with ASD have multiple needs during this pandemic, from autism-specific information and services, to more generic concerns such as financial assistance. Despite these challenges, these families have positive strategies in place to facilitate coping mechanisms.

The effect of emotion regulation strategies on nomophobia in college students: The masking role of resilience

College students have a high prevalence of nomophobia. However, research on the effects of emotion regulation and resilience on nomophobia in China is lacking. This research investigated how cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies directly and indirectly affect nomophobia through resilience. Therefore, from March to May 2023, 756 university student volunteers (21.4 % men) were selected from a university in northeastern China for a questionnaire survey. Our findings suggest that college students' resilience has a masking effect on the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and nomophobia and can attenuate the negative effect of the frequency of using cognitive reappraisal strategies on nomophobia. The frequency of expressive suppression strategies directly and positively affected nomophobia. Early psychological interventions targeting resilience might be potentially effective in alleviating nomophobia among college students.

The effect of sleep problems on core self-evaluations in undergraduate nursing students and the role of emotion regulation and resilience: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundNursing students are prone to sleep problems that affect their core self-evaluations. However, little attention has been paid to the specific roles of emotion regulation (including cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and resilience in this process. ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore 1) the direct effect of sleep problems on core self-evaluations among nursing students; 2) the chain-mediating effect of cognitive reappraisal and resilience on the relationship between sleep problems and core self-evaluations; 3) the moderating effect of expressive suppression on the direct relationship between sleep problems and core self-evaluations; and 4) the moderating effect of expressive suppression on the indirect relationship between sleep problems affecting core self-evaluations through resilience. MethodsA total of 345 nursing students completed a survey conducted between September and October 2022. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis, Fisher exact test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Spearman correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. Additionally, the SPSS PROCESS V4.0 plug-in was used to verify the moderated chain-mediating effect. ResultsSleep problems directly affected core self-evaluations among nursing students. Cognitive reappraisal and resilience played a partial chain-mediating role in the relationship between sleep problems and core self-evaluations, with expressive suppression having a direct moderating effect. ConclusionsOpportunities exist for enhancing the core self-evaluations of nursing students by addressing their sleep problems, promoting cognitive reappraisal strategies, and increasing resilience. Additionally, encouraging expressive suppression can mitigate the negative impact of sleep problems on nursing students' core self-evaluations.

“Think of the situation in a positive light”: A look at cognitive reappraisal, affective reactivity and health☆

RationaleHow individuals regulate their emotions is critical for maintaining health and well-being. For example, reframing a stressful situation in a positive light, a form of cognitive reappraisal, is beneficial for both physical and mental health as well as subjective well-being. However, it is currently unclear why this relationship exists. One potential mechanism could be how one emotionally reacts to stressors in daily life, termed affective reactivity. ObjectiveThe current study examined longitudinal associations that spanned 20 years between cognitive reappraisal and health outcomes and subjective well-being and if affective reactivity mediated this relationship. MethodsParticipants completed waves 1–3 of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Survey series and were asked various questions about their general health and well-being. Each wave was approximately 10 years apart. A subset of participants from MIDUS II completed the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE II), an 8-day daily diary asking about their everyday experiences. The final sample consisted of 1814 participants. ResultsResults found that cognitive reappraisal was significantly associated with future health and well-being outcomes, and negative affective reactivity significantly mediated this relationship. Those who engaged more in cognitive reappraisal tended to be less affectively reactive to stressful events 10 years later, leading to having better health and well-being outcomes 20 years later. ConclusionFindings from this study could better inform stress and well-being interventions by strengthening cognitive reappraisal strategies to target reducing affective reactivity to stressors which should then benefit long-term health and well-being.

Student-teachers’ Emotion Regulation in Speaking

Several scholars in education have asserted that emotions play a significant role in motivation to learn. On the side of self-regulated learning theory, it is believed that a learner would succeed more if he owned fully constructed self-regulation in learning. This research aims to describe the student-teachers’ academic emotions, specifically in speaking, and later to elaborate on their tendency to regulate it. The researcher applied mixed methods in this study. The data was obtained through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Supporting theory used to gain the description of the student-teacher state of academic emotion is the theory proposed by Pekrun et al. (2002). The result showed that the student-teachers tend to perceive negative emotions about their ability to speak. However, they managed to use a cognitive reappraisal strategy to modify their academic emotion in both stages of preparation and mastering speaking. Meanwhile, they tend to use expressive suppression to manage their academic emotion in performing speaking. Moreover, the implications and implementation of emotion regulation in the East Nusa Tenggara context as a part of the researcher’s reflection are also discussed.

Non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents with mood disorders and the roles of self-compassion and emotional regulation.

We aimed to investigate the characteristics and psychological mechanism of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents with mood disorders. We examined how self-compassion and emotional regulation affected NSSI and tested the mediating role of self-compassion in the link between emotional regulation and NSSI. We recruited outpatient and inpatient adolescent patients with bipolar and related disorders or depressive disorders (DSM-5), with a focus on NSSI. We also recruited healthy controls from the community. We collected demographic and clinical data. The Adolescent Self-injury Questionnaire, Self-compassion Scale (SCS), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were used to assess the frequency and severity of NSSI, level of self-compassion, and emotional regulation. In total, we recruited 248 adolescent patients with mood disorders (N = 196 with NSSI, and 52 without NSSI) and 212 healthy controls. NSSI was significantly associated with the female sex, lower levels of education and less use of cognitive reappraisal strategies, lower levels of self-warmth, and higher levels of self-coldness. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences in the scores of ERQ, cognitive reassessment score, and the scores of SCS among the three groups, but no statistical differences in expressive suppression score among the three groups. Self-warmth had a mediating effect between cognitive reappraisal and NSSI behavior. NSSI is prevalent among adolescent patients with mood disorders in clinical settings, especially among girls and those with lower levels of education and less cognitive reappraisal strategies. More clinical attention is needed. Self-compassion and its factors may mediate the association between emotional regulation and NSSI. Clinical implications and future research directions were discussed.

Exploring the Barriers to Social Support Interactions: A Qualitative Study of Young Adult Cancer Patients and Young Adult Supporters

ABSTRACT This study explores the reasons why young adults (ages 18–39) struggle to provide or avoid providing support to young adult cancer patients. The study also explores young adult cancer patients’ perceptions of why they have not received support from individuals who did not provide support. A total of 722 reasons were collected through online surveys and analyzed: 438 were provided by young adults who knew a young adult with cancer (N = 131), and young adult cancer patients (N = 111) provided 284 reasons why they believe they did not receive support. Initially using a previous typology of 16 nonsupport reasons, an abductive thematic analysis yielded a total of 21 barriers to the provision of social support. These barriers were categorized across four higher-order categories: recipient-focused, supporter-focused, relationship-focused, and context-focused. Some reasons provided by young adult supporters were not provided by young adult patients and vice versa, suggesting the potential for discrepancies between why cancer patients believe they did not receive support and nonsupporters’ actual reasons for not providing support. These various reasons why people struggled to provide support or avoided providing support can act as a list of barriers that future researchers and practitioners can address through the development of resources and interventions aimed at fostering adequate support provision throughout individuals’ cancer experiences. Cancer patients can address the experience of nonsupport by individuals in their lives by being more direct in communicating their support desires and, when unsuccessful, using cognitive reappraisal strategies.

PENGARUH DIFFERENTIATION OF SELF TERHADAP EMOTIONAL REGULATION PADA REMAJA DI JABODETABEK

Stress is a phenomenon that is often found among adolescents. This is because the ability to regulate emotions in adolescents is still very minimal. This becomes quite concerning if emotions cannot be regulated properly because it can lead to affecting mental health such as depression to suicide. The purpose of this research is to see how the role of the dimensions of differentiation of self can contribute to the use of the Emotional Regulation strategy. This study involved respondents with the characteristics of teenagers aged 18-25 years and domiciled in Greater Jakarta. Researchers used a sampling technique in the form of purposive sampling. The results of data collection in the field were 128 respondents but after only 108 respondents were declared valid and involved in the final results of the study. The results of data analysis using the JASP program version 0.15.10, with the multiple linear regression test method. The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was only a significant correlation in Cognitive Reappraisal with the Maintaining Identity dimension. On the other hand, the Expressive Suppression strategy is significantly correlated with all dimensions of the Differentiation of Self. This study has fulfilled all the classic assumption tests and regression tests showing that only the Maintaining Identity dimension can contribute significantly positively to the use of Cognitive Reappraisal strategies. On the other hand, the dimensions of Relational Sensitivity and Emotional Distancing can significantly contribute to the use of Expressive Suppression strategies.

The Influence of Social Exclusion on High School Students' Depression: A Moderated Mediation Model.

High school students face various pressures such as academic and interpersonal relationships, which can easily lead to depression. Social exclusion is one of the important influencing factors for adolescent depression, but there is still limited research on the mechanisms of the impact that social exclusion has on depression. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of social exclusion on depression among high school students, as well as the mediating role of thwarted belongingness and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal. Researchers assessed 1041 high school students using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Adolescent Social Exclusion Scale, Interpersonal Needs Scale, and Emotion Regulation Scale. (1) Social exclusion was negatively associated with cognitive reappraisal (r = -0.224, p < 0.001), and positively associated with thwarted belongingness and depression (r = 0.657, 0.490, p <0.001). Thwarted belongingness was positively associated with depression (r = 0.617, p <0.001), and negatively associated with cognitive reappraisal (r = -0.325, p <0.001). Cognitive reappraisal was negatively associated with depression (r = -0.280, p < 0.01). (2) Social exclusion could directly predict depression, 95% CI [0.08, 0.21]. Thwarted belongingness played a partial mediating role between social exclusion and depression, 95% CI [0.30, 0.40]. (3) Cognitive reappraisal moderated the predictive effect of thwarted belongingness on depression. Social exclusion can influence depression through thwarted belongingness and cognitive reappraisal, and educators can reduce depression by decreasing thwarted belongingness and promoting the use of cognitive reappraisal strategies by high school students.

Emotion experience and regulation in undergraduates following social rejection: A daily diary study

We used a 30-day daily diary assessment method to examine the within-person associations between social rejection, emotional experiences, and emotion regulation strategies in a sample of 34 college students. Taking emotional experience as the dependent variable, we explored and analyzed cumulative and hysteresis effects using a random regression coefficient model. The results showed that situations of social rejection tended to induce negative emotional experiences, for which college students mostly adopted attention transfer strategies. In contrast, positive emotional experience increased in situations of social acceptance, and college students mostly adopted cognitive reappraisal strategies in this setting. Further, cognitive reappraisal strategies had time accumulation and overlapping effects on individual positive emotional experiences, and attention transfer strategies had a lag effect on individual emotional experiences. These findings advance understanding of the negative affect–emotion regulation association among individuals exposed to social rejection.

Implementation of ideological political education concepts on PTSD students: based on educational psychology

Background Psychological trauma refers to the level of exposure during catastrophic events, including wars, sexual assault, earthquakes, etc. After experiencing, witnessing, or encountering these catastrophic events, we will experience varying degrees of emotional reactions such as fear, helplessness, or shock. This study will start with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of college students and analyze the positive impact of ideological and political education concepts on students’ psychological resilience.Subjects and MethodsThis study divided 120 PSTD college students who were affected by earthquake disasters into two groups, each consisting of 60 people. The experimental group received traditional psychological resilience positive emotion regulation therapy, while the control group received life cognitive therapy in ideological and political education based on traditional psychological resilience positive emotion regulation therapy. The study was measured using the Connor Davidson resilience scale (CD RISC).ResultsThe experimental results showed that the experimental group of college students experienced fewer PTSD symptoms and more positive emotions than the control group of college students.ConclusionsIn summary, the experimental group of college students showed a weakened tendency towards automatic processing of earthquake-related words (earthquake disaster words, earthquake rescue words), while experiencing more positive emotions and implicit biases; In the process of cognitive and emotional regulation, the experimental group of college students more effectively used cognitive reappraisal strategies to regulate their cognition and emotional processing of earthquake trauma.AcknowledgementStage Results of the 2022 university-level Scientific Research Project of Hunan University of Information Technology (No. XXY022QN08).

A Study on the Relationship between Emotion Regulation Strategies,Five-Factor Personality Traits and Mental Health of College Students in Private College

Private university students are an important part of Chinese college students. Exploring private university students' mental health status and its influencing factors will help college counselors and psychological counselors to carry out mental health education work. This study focuses on the analysis of the relationship between emotion regulation strategies, personality traits and mental health, and mainly uses questionnaire survey to obtain effective data of 266 college students in private universities. Through the difference test, correlation analysis and regression analysis of the three variables, it is found that students in private universities are more inclined to use cognitive reappraisal strategy. Among the five personality factors, agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion and conscientiousness have significant differences in demographic dimension. Freshmen scored significantly higher than seniors in total mental health scores, self-denial, depression and anxiety. Students who had served as class leaders had better mental health status than students who had not served as class leaders. The expression inhibition strategy of emotion regulation strategy can significantly predict the level of mental health, and neuroticism and extraversion play a complete mediating role between them. Neuroticism and conscientiousness had the greatest effect on the total score of mental health. Extraversion and conscientiousness had a negative effect on self-denial, while neuroticism had a positive effect on depression and anxiety.

Emotion regulation during encoding reduces negative and enhances neutral mnemonic discrimination in individuals with depressive symptoms

Individuals with depression exhibit dysfunctional emotion regulation, general episodic memory deficits, and a negativity bias, where negative experiences are better remembered. Recent work suggests that the negativity bias in depression may be driven by enhanced mnemonic discrimination, a memory measure that relies on hippocampal pattern separation – a computation that processes experiences with overlapping features as unique. Previously, we found that individuals with depressive symptoms show enhanced negative and impaired neutral mnemonic discrimination. The current study aimed to investigate emotion regulation as an approach toward modifying memory encoding of negative and neutral events in individuals with depressive symptoms. Here we show that applying psychological distancing (a cognitive reappraisal strategy characterized by taking a third-person perspective toward negative events) during encoding was associated with reduced negative and enhanced neutral mnemonic discrimination during retrieval in individuals with depressive symptoms. These results suggest that applying emotion regulation techniques during encoding may provide an effective approach toward altering dysfunctional memory in those with depressive symptoms. Given that pharmacological treatments often fail to treat depression, emotion regulation provides a powerful and practical approach toward modifying cognitive and emotional processes. Future neuroimaging studies will be important to determine how emotion regulation impacts the neural mechanisms underlying these findings.

Emotion regulation strategies and the two-dimensional model of adult attachment: a pilot study.

Emotion Regulation plays a crucial role in human's daily lives. Extensive research has shown that people with different attachment orientations exhibit divergencies in how they perform emotion regulation strategies. 44 adults performed an experimental emotion regulation task in which they were instructed to attend, reappraise, or suppress their emotions while viewing negative and neutral images taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Afterward, participants rated valence, arousal, and emotional dominance elicited by the images. Additionally, attachment orientations were measured using the ECR-12 questionnaire. Results showed a relationship between attachment avoidance and the level of arousal during the reappraisal condition; specifically, the higher attachment avoidance levels, the greater the emotional intensity during the implementation of cognitive reappraisal strategy. Such results suggest an association between failing in downregulate intense emotions using cognitive reappraisal when there are higher levels of attachment avoidance. Consistently, we also found that lower dominance during reappraisal was associated with more levels of avoidance. These results indicate that people with higher levels of attachment avoidance experience difficulties when using the cognitive reappraisal strategy to reduce the emotional impact produced by negative emotional stimuli. Our findings reinforce the idea that avoidant people experience high physiological activation when experience emotions.

成人期の感情調節課題時における前頭前皮質活動の検討

This study utilized the Reactivity and Regulation Situation Task (RRST) and qualitatively classified emotional regulation (ER) strategies used by adults based on their verbal responses. Research on the RRST, primarily focusing on cognitive reappraisal strategies and associated brain functions, adds to the existing body of ER research. This study used Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and measured brain functions during the RRST. Results revealed consistent variations in ER strategies and differences in cerebral hemodynamic characteristics between the two RRST blocks, which corroborated previous studies. The study also found that the speech quantity might have influenced ER, and cognitive reappraisal strategies activated different prefrontal cortex areas. Despite specific limitations, these findings are useful for future research on individual differences and ER-related disorders.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISPOSITIONAL MINDFULNESS AND LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA: COGNITIVE REAPPRAISAL AS THE MEDIATOR

Undergraduate students are facing different challenges and stressors in their life, which may lower their life satisfaction. Dispositional mindfulness has been found to increase life satisfaction, and this relationship might include cognitive process namely cognitive reappraisal. Hence, grounded in Mindfulness-to-Meaning Theory, this study examined cognitive reappraisal as the mediator in the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and life satisfaction among 147 undergraduate students (aged 18-25 years old) who were studying in Malaysia. A non-experimental correlational design was used, where the students were required to fill in three questionnaires through Google Form survey, the results were analysed through hierarchical multiple regression. The results supported all four hypotheses, with significant positive relationships found among dispositional mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and life satisfaction. Cognitive reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and life satisfaction. The findings provide valuable information for the experts to devise mindfulness interventions by incorporating cognitive reappraisal strategies, allowing students to use cognitive reappraisal to cope with challenges, improving life satisfaction.

Patterns of childhood maltreatment influence sleep quality: The role of emotion regulation.

Childhood maltreatment exerts long-term consequences on sleep health, and different subtypes could constitute maltreatment patterns. However, how naturally occurring patterns of childhood maltreatment affect subsequent sleep quality and the underlying mechanisms remain relatively unclear, particularly in youths undergoing a transitional period and in the Chinese cultural context. In this study, we identified childhood maltreatment patterns and explored how these patterns predicted sleep problems through differential emotion regulation strategies. We tracked 1929 Chinese youths (M age = 18.49; 63.1% females) for one year. Three latent profiles were identified: low maltreatment exposure, high physical and emotional maltreatment, and high sexual abuse. Compared with "low maltreatment exposure," youths in "high physical and emotional maltreatment" used fewer cognitive reappraisal strategies, and those in "high sexual abuse" used more expressive suppression, and then leading to more sleep problems. This study reveals new insights into the patterns of childhood maltreatment in Chinese youths and implies that individuals exposed to sexual abuse or a combination of physical and emotional maltreatment experience sleep problems through the impairment of differential emotion regulation processes. It also highlights the necessity of setting differential targets on emotion regulation strategies for distinct groups of maltreatment and considering the co-occurrence of physical and emotional maltreatment.

Harsh parenting and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury: A moderated mediation model of alienation and cognitive reappraisal

ObjectiveHarsh parenting has been shown to be associated with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents. Based on the integrated theoretical model of the development of NSSI and the cognitive-emotional model of NSSI, we proposed a moderated mediation model to investigate “how” and “when” harsh parenting is associated with adolescent NSSI. Specifically, we tested whether feelings of alienation mediated the association between harsh parenting and NSSI, and whether this indirect effect was weakened by cognitive reappraisal as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy. MethodsA total of 1638 Chinese adolescents (54.7 % girls; ages 12–19 years) completed self-report questionnaires in their classrooms. The questionnaires assessed harsh parenting, feelings of alienation, cognitive reappraisal skills, and incidents of NSSI. ResultsPath analyses showed that harsh parenting positively predicted NSSI, and alienation mediated this association. Both the direct effect of harsh parenting on NSSI and the indirect effect through alienation were moderated by cognitive reappraisal. Specifically, cognitive reappraisal skills weakened the direct and indirect associations between harsh parenting and NSSI. ConclusionsAdolescents may benefit from interventions that decrease feelings of alienation and increase cognitive reappraisal strategies to reduce the risk of NSSI in the context of harsh parenting.

Cognitive Reappraisal Impairs Negative Affect Regulation in the Context of Social Rejection for Youth With Early-Stage Borderline Personality Disorder.

Application of emotion regulation strategies might be susceptible to the context of social rejection for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study compared the ability of 27 outpatient youths (15-25 years old) with early-stage BPD and 37 healthy controls (HC) to apply expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal in standard and socially rejecting laboratory contexts. BPD youths were largely as able as HCs to regulate negative affect across instruction and contexts. However, cognitive reappraisal in the context of social rejection heightened BPD negative facial expression relative to HCs. Thus, while BPD emotion regulation ability was largely normative, cognitive reappraisal might be ineffective in the context of social rejection for this group, with social rejection acting as an accelerant that heightens the expression of negative affect. Given the common experience of perceived and actual social rejection for this group, clinicians should carefully consider treatments that include cognitive reappraisal strategies because they might be contraindicated.