Differences In Emotion Regulation Strategies Research Articles

Interactions between insomnia, sleep duration and emotional processes: An ecological momentary assessment of longitudinal influences combining self-report and physiological measures.

Previous studies indicated that further investigation is needed to understand how insomnia disorder interacts with emotional processes. The present study is an ecological momentary assessment evaluating the link between emotional and sleep alterations in patients with insomnia. Physiological (heart rate and heart rate variability) and subjective (sleep and emotions) indices were observed for 5 days in patients with insomnia disorder (n = 97), good sleepers under self-imposed sleep restriction (n = 41), and good sleepers with usual amount of sleep (n = 45). We evaluated differences in emotion regulation strategies and in valence and variability of emotional experiences. Over 5 days, patients with insomnia showed increased sleep and emotional difficulties compared with both control groups. Independent from group allocation, days with more negative emotions were associated with higher sleep alterations. Longer wake episodes at night and higher diurnal heart rate were associated with increased variations in emotion experienced during the day. Only in patients with insomnia, use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies was associated with higher sleep efficiency. Our data showed that alterations in sleep and emotional processes are closely linked. A combination of strategies targeting both sleep and emotional processes appears promising in the prevention and treatment of insomnia disorder.

The Contextualized Emotion Regulation Survey for Adolescents (CERSA): How does emotion regulation vary according to context?

Recent models of emotion regulation (ER) highlight the need to construct tools that assess ER in different contexts. This paper describes the development and validation of the Contextualized Emotion Regulation Survey for Adolescents (CERSA). This questionnaire assesses ER strategies and abilities in three situations that elicit specific emotions (i.e. sadness, fear and anger). Data were collected from a sample of 840 adolescents who completed the CERSA (M age  = 14.75; SD age  = 1.61) and another of 314 adolescents who completed the CERSA, the CERQ and the SLWS (M age  = 13.63; SD age  = 0.85). Results confirmed the expected structure in all situations as well as construct and external validity. Furthermore, correlations between latent factors and gender differences in ER strategies and abilities were often situation dependant. Mean levels of ER strategies and abilities varied according to the situation. These results provide empirical support for ER flexibility and polyregulation in adolescence.

Sex Differences in the Effects of Cognitive Reappraisal Training on Conditioned Fear Responses

Sex differences in emotion regulation strategies may impact sex differences in affective disorders. Using cognitive reappraisal strategy in the discriminative task of conditioned fear was studied to understand how sex differences in emotion regulation impact on conditioned fear in men and women. College students with low cognitive reappraisal scores completed the task of conditioned fear during two days: acquisition and extinction at the first day, and re-extinction at the second day. The reappraisal training was carried out before conditioned fear task. The self-reported fear rating of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and US-expectancy in the conditioned fear (unconditioned stimulus, US) were analyzed. Results showed all subjects acquired conditional fear and successfully distinguished CS+ from CS-. Cognitive reappraisal significantly reduces the fear rating and improves the extinction of US-expectancy in both sexes, but the fear rating in female reappraisal group decreases more slowly than that in male reappraisal group, as well as the extinction of US-expectancy in woman requiring a longer time and more trials of extinction than that in men. For individuals with low cognitive reappraisal scores, cognitive reappraisal promotes the extinction of conditioned fear in both males and females. Because of the original gender difference of conditioned fear extinction and emotion regulation, the effect of cognitive reappraisal on conditioned fear is complex, which shows differently in influence speed and practice effect.

Resting-state BOLD temporal variability in sensorimotor and salience networks underlies trait emotional intelligence and explains differences in emotion regulation strategies

A converging body of behavioural findings supports the hypothesis that the dispositional use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies depends on trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) levels. Unfortunately, neuroscientific investigations of such relationship are missing. To fill this gap, we analysed trait measures and resting state data from 79 healthy participants to investigate whether trait EI and ER processes are associated to similar neural circuits. An unsupervised machine learning approach (independent component analysis) was used to decompose resting-sate functional networks and to assess whether they predict trait EI and specific ER strategies. Individual differences results showed that high trait EI significantly predicts and negatively correlates with the frequency of use of typical dysfunctional ER strategies. Crucially, we observed that an increased BOLD temporal variability within sensorimotor and salience networks was associated with both high trait EI and the frequency of use of cognitive reappraisal. By contrast, a decreased variability in salience network was associated with the use of suppression. These findings support the tight connection between trait EI and individual tendency to use functional ER strategies, and provide the first evidence that modulations of BOLD temporal variability in specific brain networks may be pivotal in explaining this relationship.

Understanding Nonnative University EFL Teachers’ Professional Anxiety and Their Emotion Regulation Strategies

Based on an in-depth semi-structured interview method, this study explored sources of nonnative university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ professional anxiety and relevant emotion regulation strategies in a Chinese context. Participants mostly suffered from academic promotion anxiety, followed by research anxiety, teaching anxiety, and anxiety about English language proficiency and knowledge. To overcome this negative emotion, participants adopted two families of emotion modifications: response-focused regulation strategies including coping, expressive suppression, and communication, as well as antecedent-focused regulation strategies comprising cognitive reappraisal and distraction, with the former outweighing the latter. Findings revealed the complexity of nonnative university EFL teachers’ professional anxiety and cultural differences in emotion regulation strategies.

Emotional and Situational Acceptance Across the Lifespan: A Novel Scale

Self-reported emotional well-being tends to increase with age (Charles & Carstensen, 2007), but evidence for age differences in emotion regulation strategies is mixed (Livingstone & Isaacowitz, 2019), and the strategy of acceptance, in particular, is relatively understudied. Acceptance involves the deliberate decision to not alter a situation or one’s emotional response to it, and older adults report greater use of general acceptance (Shallcross, Ford, Floerke, & Mauss, 2013). Yet, no current scale distinguishes between situational and emotional acceptance; general acceptance is typically measured using a subscale of the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS; Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004), which assesses judgments of emotions and thoughts. Therefore, a 6-item measure of situational acceptance was developed and administered to 24 younger adults (age 18-25) and 30 older adults (age 55+) on Amazon Mechanical Turk, along with the KIMS accepting subscale and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003). The situational acceptance scale achieved good reliability (α=.721) and significantly correlated with the MAAS (r= .301, p=.027) and KIMS (r= .466, p<.001). Older adults tended to rate themselves as significantly higher on situational acceptance (M=29.83, SD=5.17) than younger adults (M=25.13, SD=5.72; t=-3.171, p=.003), and this pattern held for the MAAS and KIMS. These results confirm prior work suggesting older adults engage in acceptance more often than younger adults and expand this finding to situational, not just emotional, acceptance. Furthermore, skills related to mindfulness and acceptance appear to greatly overlap and may increase over the lifespan.

Emotion regulation strategies modulate the effect of adverse childhood experiences on perceived chronicstress with implications for cognitive flexibility.

Exposure to early life adversity is associated with chronic stress and a range of stress-related health problems in adulthood. Since chronic stress debilitates activity in the prefrontal cortex (pFC), maladaptive regulatory strategies in response to stress have been proposed as one explanation for the impact of early life adversity on health outcomes in adulthood. We conducted a study to examine the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on cognitive flexibility, a key executive function implicated in activity in the pFC, in a sample of adults (N = 486). Additionally, we investigated whether perceptions of chronic stress in adulthood would mediate the influence of ACEs on cognitive flexibility. However, stress is a subjective experience, and emotion regulation strategies can attenuate the stress response. So, we also examined if individual differences in emotion regulation strategies would modulate the relationship between ACEs and chronic stress. Our results demonstrate that early life adversity, as characterized by ACEs, is associated with decreased cognitive flexibility in adulthood. Additionally, number of ACEs was positively correlated with perceived stress, which in turn was negatively correlated with cognitive flexibility. But, individual differences in the habitual use of emotion regulation strategies moderated the influence of ACEs on chronic stress. Specifically, habitual use of cognitive reappraisal attenuated the stress levels whereas habitual use of expressive suppression exacerbated stress levels. Overall, our study highlights the importance of examining emotion regulation in individuals who have experienced early life adversity.

Examining Group Differences in Emotion Regulation Strategies and the State and Trait Anxiety of Lifeguards and Non-Lifeguards in a Real-World Precompetitive Situation

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences, between swimmer-lifeguards and swimmer-non-lifeguards, in trait and state anxiety and emotion regulation techniques in a real-life precompetitive situation with a secondary focus on gender differences. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Sport Anxiety Scale – 2 and the Mental Readiness Form – 3 were distributed to 100 participants at university swimming competitions in the United Kingdom. Swimmer-lifeguards displayed significantly lower cognitive (p=.03) and somatic state (p=.05) anxiety and cognitive trait anxiety (p=.02) than swimmer-non-lifeguards. Males reported significantly lower levels of cognitive and somatic trait anxiety (ppp=.01); no other effects were observed. These results support previous research regarding lifeguard characteristics, however the nature of these qualities and how they originate require further exploration.

Examination of differences in emotion regulation strategies between women with eating disorders and healthy women

Examination of differences in emotion regulation strategies between women with eating disorders and healthy women

Working memory interacts with emotion regulation to predict symptoms of mania

Although neurocognitive deficits and emotion regulation are closely linked within unipolar depression, little research has tested links between these two variables within bipolar disorder. The present study tested whether working memory is related to individual differences in emotion regulation strategies in bipolar disorder and whether working memory and emotion regulation can explain variability in symptoms over time. Fifty-nine euthymic adults with bipolar I disorder completed a working memory span task, symptom interviews assessing depression and mania, and questionnaires assessing brooding rumination, reappraisal, and suppression. At baseline, working memory was unrelated to emotion regulation. Symptom interviews were repeated at six months (n = 41) and 12 months (n = 36) follow-up. At 12 months, baseline working memory significantly interacted with baseline suppression to predict higher mania. Tests of simple slopes showed that at lower working memory levels, low use of suppression was associated with significantly greater mania symptoms. These results help to clarify previous inconsistent findings regarding cognitive functioning and emotion regulation strategies in bipolar disorder, suggesting that deficits in both domains combine to predict outcomes.

Reappraisal and suppression emotion-regulation tendencies differentially predict reward-responsivity and psychological well-being

Individuals who suppress their emotions experience less positive emotions, worse relationships, and a reduced quality of life whereas those who tend to reappraise show an opposite pattern. Despite this divergent pattern, few have asked how the use of these emotion-regulation strategies relates to reward responsivity. We predicted that elevated suppression would be associated with blunted reward responsivity, whereas reappraisal would be associated with elevated reward responsivity. To test this hypothesis, participants completed a measure of individual differences in emotion-regulation strategies, measures of self-reported reward responsivity, and then a reward time-estimation task (Kotani et al., 2003) while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Results revealed that individual differences in cognitive reappraisal were unrelated to self-report measures of reward responsivity, whereas suppression was associated with blunted reward responsivity. At the neural level, reappraisal was associated with greater attention to the rewarding cues, as indexed by the P300 event-related potential (ERP) component, whereas suppression was related to blunted reward anticipation, as indexed by the stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) ERP component. Suppression prospectively predicted worse psychological well-being 2.5 years later and blunted neural reward anticipation partially explained this association. Taken together with past research, these results suggest reappraisal tendencies may lead to better outcomes due, in part, to enhanced reward responsivity, whereas the negative consequences of suppression may be associated with blunted reward responsivity.

Individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the associations between empathy and affective distress

Individual differences in empathy can have positive and negative psychological outcomes. Yet, individual differences in the processing and regulation of empathy-induced emotion have not been fully explored within this dynamic. This study was designed to explore whether individual differences in emotion regulation strategies moderated the effects of empathy on common forms of affective distress. Eight hundred and forty four participants completed survey measures of trait empathy, emotion regulation strategies, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Affective empathy typically predicted greater affective distress, but the effects on depression and anxiety were offset when people were effective at reappraising their emotions. Cognitive empathy predicted lower distress on average, but this beneficial effect on anxiety and stress was absent in those who typically suppressed their emotions. Finally, suppression unexpectedly reduced the depression and stress reported for people high in affective empathy. Individual differences in emotion regulation are an important moderator between empathy and psychological health, and thus a useful target for intervention.

Differences in emotion regulation strategies across time and situational contexts among emotion laborers

 This study investigated emotional experience and emotion regulations among emotional laborers at work and off work across work years. In order to make a cross-sectional approach, 165 cabin crews were recruited from a commercial airline in Korea, whose work experiences varies from 1 month to longer than 16 years. The results of regression analysis showed that negative emotional experiences were explained by work years. However, positive emotional experiences reduced among laborers with up to around 8 work years and then increased. Such curvlinear pattern was also found in cognitive reappraisal, which is a type of emotion regulation strategies. In addition, we conducted moderation analyses to investigate the association between emotion regulation at work and off work in terms of work years. The results showed that the association between cognitive reappraisal at work and off work were stronger among laborers with short work years than those with long work years. These findings suggest that the maladaptive consequences of emotional labor such as less positive emotional experiences, less cognitive reappraisal, and more spillover effect may tone down at some point of work years. Theoretical implications and suggestions for practitioners were included.

Differences in Emotion Regulation Strategies across Time and Situational Contexts among Emotion Laborers

This study investigated emotional experience and emotion regulations among emotional laborers at work and off work across work years. In order to make a cross-sectional approach, 165 cabin crews were recruited from a commercial airline in Korea, whose work experiences varies from 1 month to longer than 16 years. The results of regression analysis showed that negative emotional experiences were explained by work years. However, positive emotional experiences reduced among laborers with up to around 8 work years and then increased. Such curvlinear pattern was also found in cognitive reappraisal, which is a type of emotion regulation strategies. In addition, we conducted moderation analyses to investigate the association between emotion regulation at work and off work in terms of work years. The results showed that the association between cognitive reappraisal at work and off work were stronger among laborers with short work years than those with long work years. These findings suggest that the maladaptive consequences of emotional labor such as less positive emotional experiences, less cognitive reappraisal, and more spillover effect may tone down at some point of work years. Theoretical implications and suggestions for practitioners were included.

The impact of attachment orientations on empathy in adults: Considering the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies and negative affectivity

The current studies explored whether individual differences in emotion regulation strategies and negative affectivity would mediate the relationship between attachment security and empathy. Attachment theory was used as a framework to examine the influence of both dispositional and experimentally enhanced attachment security. In Study 1, attachment security predicted cognitive empathy through the mediation of reappraisal. In Study 2, we experimentally enhanced attachment security. This priming led to lower suppression, rumination, and negative affectivity, but did not increase empathic responding. Mediation analyses showed that attachment security promoted cognitive empathy through reappraisal, suppression, and rumination. Overall, these results support the notion that more securely attached persons are able to experience greater levels of cognitive empathy due to reappraising their emotions, rather than suppressing or ruminating on them.

Do Overgeneral Memories Make us feel better? An experimental examination

ABSTRACTA critical assumption of the CaR-FA-X model, that overgeneral memory is partly attributable to the “functional avoidance” of specific details about one’s past experiences, has not been experimentally tested. Further, while it is assumed that the reinforcing properties of said avoidance leads to the emergence of an overgeneral recall style over time, this question has not been addressed developmentally. To explore these issues, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, 41 children and adolescents (Mage = 12 years) were randomly assigned to recall overgeneral or specific negative memories on the Autobiographical Memory Test; participants later listened to their memories and provided pre- and post-tests of their emotional states at four time points: before and after memory generation and before and after memory exposure. In Study 2, 52 college-aged participants (Mage = 19 years) completed the same protocol. Results indicated that children and adolescents in the overgeneral condition reported higher levels of positive affect relative to those in the specific condition, while recall condition did not impact adults’ emotional states. These findings were not explained by differences in emotion regulation strategies or psychopathological symptoms. Implications for developmental models of autobiographical memory and emotion regulation are discussed.

Age-related differences in emotion regulation strategies: Examining the role of contextual factors.

Increasing age is characterized by greater positive affective states. However, there is mixed evidence on the implementation of emotion regulation strategies across the life span. To clarify the discrepancies in the literature, we examined the modulating influence of contextual factors in understanding emotion regulation strategy use in older and young adults. Forty-eight older adults and forty-nine young adults completed a retrospective survey inquiring about the use of emotion regulation strategies in emotion-eliciting situations experienced over the preceding 2 weeks. We used factor analysis to establish clusters of emotion regulation strategies, resulting in cognitive strategies, acceptance, and maladaptive strategies. Overall, we found context-dependent age-related differences in emotion regulation strategy use. Specifically, older adults reported greater use of acceptance than young adults in situations of moderate intensity and in situations that evoke anxiety and sadness. In addition, older adults reported using maladaptive strategies to a lesser extent in high- and moderate-intensity situations and in situations that elicit anxiety and sadness when compared with young adults. There were no age-related differences in the use of cognitive strategies across contexts. Older adults, compared to young adults, reported less use of maladaptive strategies and greater use of acceptance than young adults, which suggests that the enhanced emotional functioning observed later in life may be due to a shift in strategy implementation. (PsycINFO Database Record

Emotional dysregulation in those with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and their comorbid expression

BackgroundDifferentiation of the bipolar disorders (BP) from a borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be challenging owing to shared features, with emotional dysregulation being the likely principal one. AimTo assess differences in emotion regulation strategies in those with BP alone, BPD alone and those comorbid for both. MethodsWe interviewed participants previously receiving a BP or BPD diagnosis, studying those who met DSM criteria for one or both conditions. ResultsThe sample comprised 83 with bipolar disorder, 53 with BPD and 54 comorbid for both. Analyses established linear trends, with the greatest impairment in emotion regulation strategies in the comorbid group followed by the BPD group, and with the lowest in the BP group. Specific deficits in the comorbid group included impulsivity, difficulties with goal directed behaviour, and accessing strategies. A similar linear profile was quantified for maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, weighted to catastrophizing and rumination. Adaptive emotion regulation strategies were superior in the bipolar group, without significant differences observed between the comorbid and BPD groups. LimitationsReliance on self-report measures; combined BP I and II participants limits generalisability of results to each bipolar sub-type; use of DSM diagnoses risking artefactual comorbidity; while there was an over-representation of females in all groups. ConclusionsDifferences in emotion regulation strategies advance differentiation of those with either BP or BPD, while we identify the specificity of differing strategies to each condition and their synergic effect in those comorbid for both conditions. Study findings should assist the development and application of targeted strategies for those with either or both conditions.

Supplemental Material for Age-Related Differences in Emotion Regulation Strategies: Examining the Role of Contextual Factors

Supplemental Material for Age-Related Differences in Emotion Regulation Strategies: Examining the Role of Contextual Factors

Age and Gender Differences in Emotion Regulation Strategies: Autobiographical Memory, Rumination, Problem Solving and Distraction.

Our study tested the hypothesis that older adults and men use more adaptive emotion regulatory strategies but fewer negative emotion regulatory strategies than younger adults and women. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that rumination acts as a mediator variable for the effect of age and gender on depression scores. Differences in rumination, problem solving, distraction, autobiographical recall and depression were assessed in a group of young adults (18-29 years) compared to a group of older adults (50-76 years). The older group used more problem solving and distraction strategies when in a depressed state than their younger counterparts (ps .06). Ordinary least squares regression analyses with bootstrapping showed that rumination mediated the association between age, gender and depression scores. These results suggest that older adults and men select more adaptive strategies to regulate emotions than young adults and women with rumination acting as a significant mediator variable in the association between age, gender, and depression.