Efficacy Of Emotion Regulation Research Articles

Brain activity associated with emotion regulation predicts individual differences in working memory ability.

Previous behavioral research has found that working memory is associated with emotion regulation efficacy. However, there has been mixed evidence as to whether the neural mechanisms between emotion regulation and working memory overlap. The present study tested the prediction that individual differences on the working memory subtest of the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) could be predicted from the pattern of brain activity produced during emotion regulation in regions typically associated with working memory, such as the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). A total of 101 participants completed an emotion regulation fMRI task in which they either viewed or reappraised negative images. Participants also completed working memory test outside the scanner. A whole brain covariate analysis contrasting the reappraise negative and view negative BOLD response found that activity in the right dlPFC positively related to working memory ability. Moreover, a multivoxel pattern analysis approach using tenfold cross-validated support vector regression in regions-of-interest associated with working memory, including bilateral dlPFC, demonstrated that we could predict individual differences in working memory ability from the pattern of activity associated with emotion regulation. These findings support the idea that emotion regulation shares underlying cognitive processes and neural mechanisms with working memory, particularly in the dlPFC.

Emotion regulation efficacy beliefs: The outsized impact of base rates.

To regulate others' emotions effectively we must learn about the efficacy of our regulation attempts. Deciding whether we made someone else feel better involves a causal judgment about the effect of our intervention on their emotional state. The current study examined whether, like other causal judgments, beliefs about emotion regulation efficacy are disproportionately affected by base rates. In two experiments, we showed that participants' perceived efficacy at helping a target regulate their emotions was more influenced by the target's average emotion levels than the relative effect of regulating versus not regulating the target's emotion. This led participants to conclude that they were helpful both when they were not (Experiment 1) and even when they made the target feel worse (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that our beliefs about the effectiveness of other-directed emotion regulation are notably biased by the average level of emotion expressed by the regulation target. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Chain mediations of perceived social support and emotional regulation efficacy between role stress and compassion fatigue: insights from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nurses at the frontline faced high risks of the COVID-19 infection, undertook heavy workloads of patient care, and experienced tremendous stress that often led to compassion fatigue. This study was to explore the role of positive psychosocial resources (i.e., perceived social support and emotional regulation efficacy) in the relationship between role stress and compassion fatigue. A cross-sectional design was conducted in Hubei Province, China between May and September 2021. The Role Stress Questionnaire, the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Emotional Regulation Efficacy Scale, and the Professional Quality of Life Scale were used to measure key variables of interest. Nurse socio-demographic data were also collected. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the relationships, including potential mediating effect, among role stress, perceived social support, emotional regulation efficacy, and compassion fatigue. A total of 542 nurses participated in this investigation, and 500 were eventually enrolled in the analysis. The incidence of compassion fatigue among nurses was 94.2%, including 65.8% of nurses reporting at least moderate compassion fatigue. Univariate analysis showed that educational level, marital status, hospital rank, sleep time were the factors affecting compassion fatigue of the nurses. The structural equation modeling revealed that: Role stress had a direct positive effect on compassion fatigue; Perceived social support and emotional regulation efficacy partially mediated the link between role stress and compassion fatigue respectively; And there was a chain mediating role of perceived social support and emotional regulation efficacy between role stress and compassion fatigue. The incidence of compassion fatigue was high during the COVID-19 pandemic among bedside nurses in China. Improving social support and enhancing the efficacy of emotion regulation may help alleviate compassion fatigue directly and/or via buffering the impact of role stress.

Supplemental Material for Emotion Regulation Efficacy Beliefs: The Outsized Impact of Base Rates

Supplemental Material for Emotion Regulation Efficacy Beliefs: The Outsized Impact of Base Rates

When Tourists are Angry or Fearful: (In)Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation in Changing Behavioral Intention

This study investigates the efficacy of emotion regulation (ER) strategies used by tourists to manage negative emotions elicited by their on-site destination experiences. Specifically, suppression and reappraisal ER strategies were examined for their moderating impacts on the relationship between negative emotions (anger and fear) and tourists’ behavioral intention (negative word-of-mouth and revisitation). Through two pre-tests and three experiments involving video and text stimuli, findings are first revealed within a destination crowding context and replicated using tourist harassment. Empirical results in both contexts consistently demonstrate the superiority of reappraisal in down-regulating tourists’ experience of anger and fear and in alleviating negative word-of-mouth intention. In contrast, suppression significantly up-regulates the anger and fear felt and, as such, aggravates negative word-of-mouth intention. Findings also suggest that ER does not significantly moderate the effect of fear on revisit intention. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Anxiety, concerns and emotion regulation in individuals with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome during the COVID-19 outbreak: a global study

Individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) have been reported to experience increased levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our study, we document how individuals with Down Syndrome (DS; N = 557; Mage = 16.52; 233 female) and Williams syndrome (WS, N = 247; Mage = 18.43; 113 female) experienced the first wave (April 2020–May 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. Using multilevel linear mixed regressions, we studied (a) parental reported anxiety of individuals with DS and WS, (b) these individuals’ specific concerns, and (c) their use and efficacy of emotion regulation (ER) strategies during the first wave of COVID-19. Predictors of anxiety, such as the age of the individual with NDC, type of condition, and time, were investigated. Individuals with WS experienced higher levels of anxiety compared to those with DS and the older the individuals with NDC were the more anxiety they experienced. In terms of concerns, group effects indicated that individuals with WS scored higher for most of the concerns. There were no gender differences in concerns, yet most of the concerns increased with age except for concerns about loss of routine, boredom, loss of institutional support and family conflict. Finally, significant group effects were found and indicated a more frequent use of a variety of adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies in individuals with WS. We did not identify group differences in the efficacy of ER strategies. Our results indicate that individuals with WS are likely to exhibit higher levels of anxiety, but also higher levels of concerns depending on their age. Similarly, individuals with WS use a variety of ER strategies more frequently but these strategies are not necessarily more efficient for them. We discuss the impact of these findings in relation to anxiety identification and support across individuals with NDCs.

Depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, and the way of coping emotions as risk factors for ischemic stroke and their influence on stroke severity: A case-control study in Lebanon.

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. There are numerous debates regarding the relationship between depression, anxiety, insomnia, perceived stress, and ischemic stroke. Moreover, no research on the efficacy of emotion regulation, which is critical for various components of healthy affective and social adaptability, is being conducted. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in the MENA region to shed light on the relationship between these conditions and stroke risk, aiming to determine whether depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, and the way of coping with emotions may be risk factors for ischemic stroke occurrence and to further investigate the ability of two specific types of emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) as possible moderators of the relationship between these psychological diseases and ischemic stroke risk. As a secondary objective, we sought to determine how these pre-existing conditions affect stroke severity levels. This is a case-control survey study involving 113 Lebanese inpatients with a clinical diagnosis of ischemic stroke admitted in hospitals and rehabilitation centers in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, and 451 gender-matched volunteers without clinical signs of stroke as controls recruited from the same hospitals as the cases or attending outpatient clinics for illnesses or treatments unconnected to stroke or transient ischemic attack, as well as visitors or relatives of inpatients (April 2020-April 2021). Data was collected by filling out an anonymous paper-based questionnaire. According to the outcomes of the regression model, depression (aOR: 1.232, 95%CI: 1.008-1.506), perceived stress (aOR: 1.690, 95%CI: 1.413-2.022), a lower educational level (aOR: 0.335, 95%CI: 0.011-10.579), and being married (aOR: 3.862, 95%CI: 1.509-9.888) were associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke. The moderation analysis revealed that expressive suppression had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between depression, anxiety, perceived stress, insomnia, and ischemic stroke risk, resulting in an increased risk of stroke incidence. In contrast, cognitive reappraisal significantly reduced the risk of ischemic stroke by moderating the association between ischemic stroke risk and the following independent variables: perceived stress and insomnia. On the other hand, our multinomial regression model revealed that the odds of moderate to severe/severe stroke were significantly higher in people with pre-stroke depression (aOR: 1.088, 95% CI: 0.747-1.586) and perceived stress (aOR: 2.564, 95% CI: 1.604-4.100) compared to people who had never had a stroke. Despite several limitations, the findings of our study suggest that people who are depressed or stressed are more likely to have an ischemic stroke. Consequently, additional research into the causes and effects of depression and perceived stress may provide new directions for preventive strategies that can help reduce the risk of stroke. Since pre-stroke depression and perceived stress were also found to be strongly correlated with stroke severity, future studies should evaluate the association between pre-stroke depression, perceived stress, and stroke severity to gain a deeper understanding of the complex interaction between these variables. Lastly, the study shed new light on the role of emotion regulation in the relationship between depression, anxiety, perceived stress, insomnia, and ischemic stroke.

Regaining control of your emotions? Investigating the mechanisms underlying effects of cognitive control training for remitted depressed patients.

Studies suggest that cognitive control training shows potential as a preventive intervention for depression. At the same time, little is known regarding the mechanisms underlying effects of cognitive control training. Informed by theoretical frameworks of cognitive risk for recurrent depression (De Raedt & Koster, 2010; Siegle et al., 2007), the current study sought to model direct effects of cognitive control training on the complex interplay between affect, emotion regulation, residual symptomatology, and resilience in a sample of remitted depressed patients (n = 92). Combining a 4-week experience sampling procedure with an experimental manipulation of cognitive control, we observed beneficial effects of cognitive control training on deployment of rumination. In addition, we obtained evidence for the causal involvement of cognitive control in efficacy of emotion regulation. In contrast to our expectations, cognitive control training did not exert immediate effects on residual symptomatology or resilience when compared with an active control condition, nor did cognitive control training impact the complex interplay between these variables. Overall, immediate effects of cognitive control training on functioning in daily life were limited. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Public mental health during and after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: Opportunities for intervention via emotional self-efficacy and resilience.

During the pandemic, the number of United States adults reporting clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression sky-rocketed, up from 11% in 2020 to more than 40% in 2021. Our current mental healthcare system cannot adequately accommodate the current crisis; it is therefore important to identify opportunities for public mental health interventions. Assess whether modifiable emotional factors may offer a point of intervention for the mental health crisis. From January 13 to 15, 2022, adults living in the United States were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete an anonymous survey. Linear regressions tested whether the primary outcomes during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (depressive and anxiety symptoms, burnout) were associated with hypothesized modifiable risk factors (loneliness and need for closure) and hypothesized modifiable protective factors (the ability to perceive emotions and connect with others emotionally; emotion-regulation efficacy; and resilience, or the ability to "bounce back" after negative events). The sample included 1,323 adults (mean [SD] age 41.42 [12.52] years; 636 women [48%]), almost half of whom reported clinically significant depressive (29%) and/or anxiety (15%) symptoms. Approximately 90% of participants indicated feeling burned out at least once a year and nearly half of participants (45%) felt burned out once a week or more. In separate analyses, depressive symptoms (Model A), anxiety symptoms (Model B), and burnout (Model C) were statistically significantly associated with loneliness (βModel A, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.33-0.43; βModel B, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.26-0.36; βModel C, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.28-0.41), need for closure (βModel A, 0.09; 95% CI, 1.03-1.06; βModel B, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.97-0.17; βModel C, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.07-0.16), recent stressful life events (βModel A, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.10-0.17; βModel B, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.11-0.18; βModel C, 0.10; 95% CI, 0.06-0.15), and resilience (βModel A, -0.10; 95% CI, -0.15 to -0.05; βModel B, -0.18; 95% CI, -0.23 to -0.13; βModel C, -0.11; 95% CI, -0.17 to -0.05). In addition, depressive and anxiety symptoms were associated with emotional self-efficacy (βModel A, -0.17; 95% CI, -0.22 to -0.12; βModel B, -0.11; 95% CI, -0.17 to -0.06), and beliefs about the malleability of emotions (βModel A, -0.08; 95% CI, -0.12 to -0.03; βModel B, -0.09; 95% CI, -0.13 to -0.04). Associations between loneliness and symptoms were weaker among those with more emotional self-efficacy, more endorsement of emotion malleability beliefs, and greater resilience, in separate models. Analyses controlled for recent stressful life events, optimism, and social desirability. Public mental health interventions that teach resilience in response to negative events, emotional self-efficacy, and emotion-regulation efficacy may protect against the development of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and burnout, particularly in the context of a collective trauma. Emotional self-efficacy and regulation efficacy may mitigate the association between loneliness and mental health, but loneliness prevention research is also needed to address the current mental health crisis.

Support me in the good times too: Interpersonal emotion regulation, perceived social support, and loneliness among mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder

Although loneliness is an experience that mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may face, it has not been widely explored. Having a supportive social environment that is also effective in emotion regulation may provide feelings of security necessary for one to feel less lonely. The present study examined loneliness levels among mothers of children with ASD (vs. without ASD) and explored interpersonal resources (interpersonal emotion regulation and perceived social support) that might contribute to reduced loneliness. One-thousand-seven-hundred-and-83 mothers of children (546 with ASD, 1,237 without) completed a series of questionnaires. Mothers of children with ASD (vs. without ASD) reported higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of interpersonal emotion regulation efficacy for positive emotions and lower levels of perceived social support. A serial mediation model indicated that interpersonal factors fully mediated the association between being a mother of a child with ASD (vs. without) and loneliness. Moreover, a moderation mediation model showed that the tendency to approach others in order to regulate positive emotions moderated the association between perceived efficacy of such regulation and mothers’ loneliness. Interpersonal emotion regulation for positive emotions and perceived social support may contribute to reduced loneliness, especially among mothers of children with ASD.

Positivity, creativity, and reappraisal's emotion regulation efficacy.

The relationship between cognitive reappraisal's creativity (both novelty and appropriateness), positivity (the positive or negative attitudes), and emotion regulation efficacy was analyzed. Positivity was found to play a full mediating role between creativity and regulation effectiveness.

Novel computational algorithms to index lexical markers of psychological distancing and their relationship to emotion regulation efficacy over time.

The degree to which one employs an objective or spatially/temporally distant perspective via language, i.e., linguistic distancing, has previously been shown to be positively associated with well-being. We sought to further elucidate relationships among language and emotion over time as a function of the implementation of sub-tactics of psychological distancing. In Study 1, we developed novel deep machine learning algorithms to identify the degree to which linguistic patterns reflect two types of psychological distancing, namely objective (OBJ) and spatial/temporal (FAR) distancing. In Study 2, in an expressive writing-based longitudinal emotion regulation training task, participants transcribed their thoughts while viewing negative or neutral stimuli over 5 sessions in one of three ways: by implementing objective language (Objective group), by implementing spatially/temporally distant language (Far group), or by responding naturally. We found that the OBJ and FAR algorithms significantly predicted changes in task-based self-reported negative affect in the Objective group and found no significant associations in the Far group. The relationship between the algorithm scores and self-reported negative affect was stronger in the Objective group compared to the Far group. These findings describe sensitive linguistic distancing algorithms that are capable of tracking changes in self-reported negative affect. These results may be useful in developing novel, unobtrusive emotion regulation assessments and interventions that utilize natural language processing.

Feeling you, when you feel me: attachment, empathic concern, and interpersonal emotion regulation

ABSTRACT Empathic concern is an important part of social relationships. Attachment orientation may explain individual differences in empathic concern. However, the circumstances under which attachment orientation is related to empathic concern remain unexamined. This exploratory study investigated the moderating role of a novel aspect of emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation, in the relationship between attachment orientation and empathic concern. Study 1 (N = 179) and Study 2 (direct replication, N = 202) yielded consistent main effects for emotion regulation. Interpersonal emotion regulation efficacy (people’s belief that interpersonal emotion regulation can effectively change their negative and positive emotions) was positively associated with empathic concern. Avoidant attachment showed a moderately consistent negative association with empathic concern. Negative efficacy moderated the association between anxious attachment and empathic concern only in Study 1. The findings focus attention on the importance of interpersonal emotion regulation efficacy to empathic concern and on the complex relationship between attachment and empathic concern.

Sexual Minority Status, Affect Lability, and Suicide Ideation: Buffering Role of Trait Mindfulness

Objective Emotion regulation has been proposed as a mechanism driving sexual orientation disparities in suicide ideation (SI), but little research has examined the role of affect lability in the association of sexual minority identity and SI. As prior research has found trait mindfulness to be associated with lower SI, the objective of the present study was to examine the buffering role of mindfulness in the associations of sexual orientation, affect lability, and SI. Method The present study used a moderated mediation model to examine a cross-sectional dataset consisting of heterosexual (n = 1511) and sexual minority (n = 355) U.S. college students (N = 1866), to examine whether five facets of mindfulness moderated the indirect association of sexual minority identity on SI via affect lability. Results As predicted, sexual minority identity was associated with higher affect lability, which in turn was associated with higher SI. Acting with awareness (i.e., attending to the present activities), describing (i.e., the ability to verbalize inner experiences), and non-judging (i.e., refraining from judging inner experiences) buffered the indirect association of sexual minority identity on SI via affect lability, such that the indirect association weakened at higher levels of those mindfulness facets. Conclusions Our results provide a better understanding of the emotion regulation mechanisms underlying the higher risk of SI among sexual minorities. Future research is needed to examine mindfulness facets as buffers against SI among other communities, and to examine the efficacy of emotion regulation and mindfulness interventions in reducing suicide ideation and other aspects of suicidality (i.e., plans/attempts). Highlights Sexual orientation disparities in suicide ideation (SI) and affect lability. Sexual minority identity linked to higher SI via higher affect lability. Three mindfulness facets attenuated indirect association of identity on SI.

Expanding context in the role of emotion regulation in mental health: How socioeconomic status (SES) and developmental stage matter.

Reliance on disengagement strategies to manage emotional experiences is associated with higher levels of mental health symptomology. Nascent research suggests, however, that socioeconomic status (SES) may moderate the associations between emotion regulation (ER) strategy use and mental health problems. A handful of studies have been conducted assessing moderators of ER and mental health, but few have examined disengagement and all are cross-sectional. As such, little is known about whether SES influences the association between disengagement use and mental health or whether these associations vary across developmental period. The current study, therefore, examined whether the efficacy of ER during the transition from early adolescence to adulthood is moderated by SES. Participants (n = 341) who were part of a larger, longitudinal study were assessed during early adolescence (Mage = 13), late adolescence (Mage = 17), and adulthood (Mage = 24). SES moderated the association between disengagement use and internalizing symptoms during early adolescence and adulthood, but not late adolescence. SES also moderated the association between disengagement use and externalizing symptoms, but only during early adolescence. In each case the significant adverse association between disengagement and mental health was amplified among those from lower SES backgrounds. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A mental health informatics study on the mediating effect of the regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

To identify the internal mechanism of the relationship between physical activity and mental health in home exercises. Participants were 2233 college students with an average age of 19.34 (SD = 1.07) recruited from southern China using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hierarchical multiple regression. They completed the college student physical activity questionnaire, regulatory emotional self-efficacy scale (RES) and Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) to explore the internal mechanism of the relationship between home exercises and mental health in the context of fitness campaign. Statistical analysis based on ANOVA and hierarchical multiple regression, and the results showed that gender differences is a critical factor influencing the effectiveness of home exercise on mental health in college students. Furthermore, individuals with regulatory emotional self-efficacy are more likely to keep exercising, which may stimulate the positive effect on enhancing mental health. Variable of emotion regulation efficacy play an important role in promoting college students positive emotions, stimulating potential, and improving physical and mental health. Further to advocate sports interventions for home-stay groups to improve their control of emotions, thereby reducing their anxiety and depression in the face of unexpected events.

BOLD activity during emotion reappraisal positively correlates with dietary self-control success.

We combined established emotion regulation and dietary choice tasks with fMRI to investigate behavioral and neural associations in self-regulation across the two domains in human participants. We found that increased BOLD activity during the successful reappraisal of positive and negative emotional stimuli was associated with dietary self-control success. This cross-task correlation was present in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex as well as the striatum. In contrast, BOLD activity during the food choice task was not associated with self-reported emotion regulation efficacy. These results suggest that neural processes utilized during the reappraisal of emotional stimuli may also facilitate dietary choices that override palatability in favor of healthfulness. In summary, our findings indicate that the neural systems supporting emotion reappraisal can generalize to other behavioral contexts that require reevaluation of rewarding stimuli and outcomes to promote choices that conform with the current goal.

Getting better over time: A framework for examining the impact of emotion regulation training.

Effective emotion regulation is indispensable for mental and physical health. Recent decades have seen exponential growth in research into the psychological mechanisms underlying emotion regulation. Much of the foundational research investigating emotion regulation processes has assessed changes in emotion during single laboratory-based sessions. One relatively underexplored topic is the assessment of whether and how the ability to regulate emotion effectively using particular strategies can change over time within an individual (e.g., through training). The goal of this review is to examine existing research into this topic in healthy as well as clinical populations. I will provide a framework for the design of future longitudinal emotion regulation intervention studies that may further address this topic, with factors including the strategy or strategies trained; situation factors including the number, frequency, and delivery modality of intervention sessions as well as the ecological validity of the stimuli experienced at each time point; and person factors including training recipient individual differences, within and across healthy and clinical populations. Thorough, theoretically motivated examination of these factors will be important in the development of novel, evidence-based, and increasingly personalized longitudinal interventions to improve emotion regulation efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of individual differences in emotion regulation efficacy

Emotion regulation (ER) helps to maintain mental health and achieve optimal functioning. Whether people benefit from various ER strategies may depend on individual difference variables. A sample of undergraduates (N = 378, Mage = 18.6) underwent a negative emotion induction and then were assigned to learn about and perform an ER strategy (cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, or distraction). We tested whether individual differences (cognitive restructuring skills, need for cognition, mindfulness, and experiential avoidance) moderated the efficacy of ER (i.e., decreased negative emotion from before to after applying the strategy). Experientially avoidant individuals had less efficacy in applying the acceptance strategy, compared to the cognitive reappraisal and distraction strategies. Motivation and perceived ability to use each strategy were examined as mediators.

Writing about gratitude increases emotion-regulation efficacy

ABSTRACT Gratitude has gained attention in the domain of positive emotion research given its important prosocial role in connecting us to others and fostering well-being. It remains less clear which mechanisms gratitude acts to promote benefits in people’s life. We considered emotional regulation as one of these main processes. Ninety participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: write and share gratitude stories, write gratitude stories, and write and share non-emotional routine situations. Participants were asked to write twice per week during four consecutive weeks after which they returned to the laboratory to perform an emotion reappraisal task. The groups that wrote about gratitude were more effective in applying emotion reappraisal than the control group, i.e. both demonstrated better down-regulation of negative images than the control group. The results of the current study demonstrate a positive effect of focusing on personal past experiences of gratitude on present emotion regulation.