Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Research Articles

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.

Emotion regulation difficulties and interpersonal conflict in borderline personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by both emotion regulation (ER) and interpersonal difficulties. Although the link between ER difficulties and interpersonal problems in BPD is well documented, less work has examined the directionality of these associations. The present study examined the temporal relationship between ER difficulties and interpersonal problems among individuals with BPD features in daily life. Participants were 173 undergraduate students who completed daily questionnaires for 2 weeks. Participants were prompted to identify their most stressful events each day and report their use of maladaptive ER strategies (i.e., expressive suppression, worry/rumination, and avoidance) and interpersonal conflict behaviors (i.e., argue, hit someone/throw things). BPD features were associated with greater interpersonal conflict and ER difficulties. Unexpectedly, maladaptive ER strategy use did not predict next-day interpersonal conflict. Interpersonal conflict significantly predicted next-day maladaptive ER strategy use; however, this association was weaker among those with elevated BPD features. Implications of these findings for treatment are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Adjustment of Couples to the Transition to Retirement: The Interplay of Intra- and Interpersonal Emotion Regulation in Daily Life.

Background: Retirement is a central transition in late adulthood and requires adjustment. These processes not only affect the retired individuals but also their romantic partners. The aim of this study is to investigate the interplay of intrapersonal emotion regulation (rumination) with interpersonal regulation processes (disclosure quality). Furthermore, the associations of daily retirement-related disclosure with adjustment symptoms in disclosing and the listening partner will be investigated. It is expected that the effects of disclosure alter after providing the couples with a self-applied solitary written disclosure task in order to support their intrapersonal emotion regulation.Methods: In this dyadic online-diary study, 45 couples (N = 45) with one partner perceiving the adjustment to a recent retirement as challenging reported rumination, perceived disclosure quality (repetitive, focused on negative content, hard to follow, disclosing partner open for common/authentic), retirement-related disclosure, and ICD-11 adjustment symptoms preoccupation and failure to adapt were assessed at the end of the day over 14 days. In the middle of this assessment period, couples performed a modified online-expressive writing about their thoughts and feelings regarding the transition to retirement.Results: The double-intercept multilevel Actor–Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) reveal that on days with more daily rumination, the spouse perceived that disclosure of the retiree is more difficult to follow, more negative, and repetitive. In contrast, the retiree perceived less authenticity and openness to comments during disclosure on days when the spouse reports more rumination. Retirement-related disclosure showed no within-couple association with failure to adapt but actor effects on preoccupation. Moreover, a partner effect of disclosure of the retirees on the preoccupation of spouses could be observed. This contagious effect of the retiree disclosure, however, disappeared during the week after writing.Conclusion: Our results support the notion that disclosure processes are altered during maladaptive intrapersonal emotion regulation processes. This in turn seems to lead to less effective interpersonal regulation and contagious spilling over of symptoms.Supporting intrapersonal emotion regulation seems to have the potential to allow more favorable interpersonal regulation processes and to free interpersonal resources for an individual adjustment. This has implications for further planning of support for couples facing life transitions and aging-related changes.

Does interpersonal emotion regulation ability change with age?

Societal and political changes mean that individuals are working until later in life, leading to interest in whether older workers' effectiveness differs from that of younger workers. An important predictor of work effectiveness is ‘interpersonal emotion regulation’, that is, the management of others' feelings. However, little is known so far about whether there are age-related changes in interpersonal emotion regulation ability. In this article, I apply theoretical evidence about aging to a model of the composite tasks involved in interpersonal emotion regulation, in order to form predictions about age-related differences in the management of others' feelings. I further review the existing empirical evidence base, to highlight areas where predictions are supported and areas where further research is needed. It is hoped that this article will guide future empirical work in this important area, in order to broaden the evidence base on age and emotion regulation.

Co-rumination across in-person and digital communication: Associations with affect and relationship closeness in adolescents

IntroductionDespite the prominence of interpersonal emotion regulation, particularly during adolescence, it is a relatively understudied area of investigation. Co-rumination is an interpersonal emotion regulation strategy that is frequently used by adolescents. Traditional examinations of co-rumination have focused on its occurrence in person, while largely overlooking digital modes of communication. This study was the first to investigate adolescents’ co-rumination across multiple communication modalities (i.e., in person, text, social media, phone) and its downstream association with affect and relationship closeness. Specifically, we examined: (1) the frequency of co-rumination across modalities, (2) the effect of co-rumination in one modality on the future use of co-rumination within that same modality (i.e., stability) and across other modalities (i.e., generalization); and (3) the prospective relation of co-rumination on negative affect, positive affect, and relationship closeness. MethodsAdolescents (n = 71; 33 girls and 38 boys; Mage = 12.70 years) residing in Canada completed twice-daily diary surveys for 14 days. ResultsFindings indicated that adolescents co-ruminate across all modes of communication, particularly in person. There also was evidence of co-rumination stability and generalization over time for some modes of communication (within phone and from social media to in-person interactions), but not for others. Co-rumination through text and over the phone had affective and/or social benefits, whereas co-rumination through social media predicted diminished positive affect. We also identified ways these findings differed by gender. ConclusionsImplications for adolescents’ emotional and social development and the field of co-rumination are discussed.

Interpersonal and intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies: How do they interact and influence fear of negative evaluation?

Although emotion regulation (ER) covers both intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies that individuals employ to adjust their different emotional experiences, studies have mainly focused on intrapersonal aspects of ER. However, recent studies have focused on interpersonal aspects of ER and have given cue about the importance of implications of such interactions. This study sought to explore the impact of the interaction of maladaptive intrapersonal ER strategies with interpersonal ER strategies on the fear of negative evaluation. With this aim, a community sample of 299 (236 females, M = 27.02, SD = 11.97) Turkish individuals completed an online survey composed of scales assessing IER, maladaptive cognitive ER, and fear of negative evaluation. The moderation analysis showed the interactive effect of soothing and maladaptive cognitive ER on fear of negative evaluation. Specifically, utilization of soothing habitually as an IER strategy is associated with greater fear of being negatively evaluated for individuals who seldom engage in maladaptive cognitive ER strategies (e.g., rumination). The findings point out the maladaptive function of soothing as an ER strategy for the sensitivity to negative social evaluations.

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation: an Experience Sampling Study.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00044-y.

Virtual reality for the enhancement of emotion regulation.

In recent decades, a growing body of literature has focused on emotion regulation (ER), which refers to the ability to implement strategies in order to modulate emotional responses and reach desirable goals. To date, impaired ER (i.e., emotion dysregulation) has been identified as a transdiagnostic factor across a wide range of psychopathological conditions, which shows the importance of improving patients' ability to regulate negative and positive emotions in clinical practice. In addition to the increasing evidence showing its efficacy in the treatment of several clinical conditions, virtual reality (VR) has recently emerged as a potentially powerful tool for enhancing ER, thus breaking new ground in the development of cutting-edge transdiagnostic interventions. In the present narrative review, we will provide an overview of the existing evidence about VR-based interventions in the field of ER, emphasizing the promising findings and the barriers that still have to be addressed. To this aim, the available VR-based literature will be analysed in relation to four categories of ER strategies: situational strategies, attentional strategies, cognitive strategies, and response modulation strategies. Furthermore, new emerging fields of research targeting innovative aspects of ER will be highlighted, including the use of VR to promote positive emotions and interpersonal ER skills. Besides, its cost-effectiveness will be discussed, taking into account the costs for both developers (e.g., clinicians and researchers) and end-users. Finally, future directions in this promising field of research will be outlined.

Anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and emotion regulation: A longitudinal study of pregnant women having given birth during the COVID-19 pandemic

The objectives of the present longitudinal study were to (i) understand the potential impacts of concern about the COVID-19 epidemic and containment measures (e.g. lockdown) on the psychological and emotional status of women during pregnancy and after childbirth, (ii) identify factors associated with these impacts, and (iii) to study the mothers’ coping strategies and protective factors.Data were collected during pregnancy (timepoint 1, during France's first period of lockdown from April 6th to May 11th, 2020) and then one month after childbirth (timepoint 2). At timepoint 1, 90 women completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. At timepoint 2, 26 women completed the City Birth Trauma Scale, the Interpersonal Emotional Regulation Questionnaire, and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. The relationship between social support and worry about the fetus/baby during the COVID-19 pandemic was statistically significant (Rho=- 0.21; p0.05). Worry about the fetus/baby was also significantly correlated with the anxiety score (Rho=0.60; p0.01) and the depression score (Rho= 0.37, p0.01). When the study population was compared with a control sample of new mothers having given birth outside the lockdown period, we observed differences in the prevalence of anxiety but not in the prevalence of postpartum PTSD. Lastly, the relationship between posttraumatic growth and emotion regulation was not significant (Rho=0.29, p = 0.16 for soothing; Rho=0.26, p = 0.20 for social modeling; Rho=0.28; p = 0.17 for perspective-taking; Rho=0.35; p = 0.08 for enhancing positive affect). In view of the sample size and the statistical tests, this study should be considered as exploratory. Our present results open up opportunities for further research and suggest that a possible impact of COVID-19 must be considered when evaluating potential psychological disorders in the perinatal period.

A relational perspective on emotion regulation across adulthood

AbstractTheories of aging suggest that close social connections are key determinants of maintained emotional well‐being across adulthood. However, most emotion regulation (ER) research has taken an intrapsychic perspective, focusing primarily on individuals' attempts to manage their own emotions in isolation from others. In this article, we present a relational perspective on ER and suggest that consideration of social factors can provide novel insight into how ER operates and changes throughout the adult lifespan. We describe theoretical perspectives of aging and ER, review the mixed evidence regarding the characterization of age‐related shifts in ER, and highlight relational features of ER goals, strategy selection, and success of implementation. We conclude with a discussion of directions for future research examining ER throughout adulthood from a relational perspective, advocating for the comparison of intrapersonal and interpersonal ER in ecologically valid and longitudinal contexts.

Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ): Psychometric properties and gender differences in Chinese young adolescents.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 33(4) of Psychological Assessment (see record 2021-42259-001). In the article "Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ): Psychometric Properties and Gender Differences in Chinese Young Adolescents," by Ruyi Ding, Wei He, Jin Liu, Tuo Liu, Dan Zhang, and Shiguang Ni (Psychological Assessment, 2021, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. e13-e28, https://doi.org/10.1037/ pas0000997), the following funding information was missing from the author note: "This study was funded by the Shenzhen Humanities & Social Sciences Key Research Bases, Tsinghua SIGS Overseas Research Cooperation Foundation (Grant No. HW2020004), National Philosophy and Social Sciences Foundation of China (Grant No. 20AZD085) and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020A1515010949)." All versions of this article have been corrected.] The Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ) is a scale developed to measure the tendency and efficacy of intrinsic interpersonal emotion regulation across positive and negative affective states. As the psychometric properties of the IRQ across cultures and different ages have not been well established, the current study was conducted to examine the applicability of the translated IRQ in a sample of Chinese young adolescents (initial n = 487; 50.20% are males; M = 14.52 years old, SD = .75). The original four-factor structure of the IRQ (i.e., negative-tendency, negative-efficacy, positive-tendency, and positive-efficacy) and other parsimonious models were examined and compared using confirmatory factor analysis. The results demonstrated that only the correlated-four-factor model had acceptable model fit indices. The internal consistencies of the four sub-scales were all above .70. Strict measurement invariance (i.e., configural, metric, and scalar) was achieved between males and females. In addition, latent mean comparison showed that females reported higher negative-efficacy and positive-tendency than males, while no gender variations were found for the remaining two factors. The validity of the IRQ was further supported by its convergent-discriminant associations with emotional well-being and distress, emotional expressivity, social competence, empathic responding, cognitive reappraisal, and delinquent behavior. Taken together, the IRQ is a reliable and valid measure for Chinese young adolescents' intrinsic interpersonal emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Correction to Ding et al. (2021).

Reports an error in "Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ): Psychometric properties and gender differences in Chinese young adolescents" by Ruyi Ding, Wei He, Jin Liu, Tuo Liu, Dan Zhang and Shiguang Ni (Psychological Assessment, Advanced Online Publication, Mar 18, 2021, np). In the article "Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ): Psychometric Properties and Gender Differences in Chinese Young Adolescents," by Ruyi Ding, Wei He, Jin Liu, Tuo Liu, Dan Zhang, and Shiguang Ni (Psychological Assessment, 2021, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. e13-e28, https://doi.org/10.1037/ pas0000997), the following funding information was missing from the author note: "This study was funded by the Shenzhen Humanities & Social Sciences Key Research Bases, Tsinghua SIGS Overseas Research Cooperation Foundation (Grant No. HW2020004), National Philosophy and Social Sciences Foundation of China (Grant No. 20AZD085) and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020A1515010949)." All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2021-27042-001.) The Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ) is a scale developed to measure the tendency and efficacy of intrinsic interpersonal emotion regulation across positive and negative affective states. As the psychometric properties of the IRQ across cultures and different ages have not been well established, the current study was conducted to examine the applicability of the translated IRQ in a sample of Chinese young adolescents (initial n = 487; 50.20% are males; M = 14.52 years old, SD = .75). The original four-factor structure of the IRQ (i.e., negative-tendency, negative-efficacy, positive-tendency, and positive-efficacy) and other parsimonious models were examined and compared using confirmatory factor analysis. The results demonstrated that only the correlated-four-factor model had acceptable model fit indices. The internal consistencies of the four sub-scales were all above .70. Strict measurement invariance (i.e., configural, metric, and scalar) was achieved between males and females. In addition, latent mean comparison showed that females reported higher negative-efficacy and positive-tendency than males, while no gender variations were found for the remaining two factors. The validity of the IRQ was further supported by its convergent-discriminant associations with emotional well-being and distress, emotional expressivity, social competence, empathic responding, cognitive reappraisal, and delinquent behavior. Taken together, the IRQ is a reliable and valid measure for Chinese young adolescents' intrinsic interpersonal emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation: From Research to Group Therapy.

The concept of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) refers to a variety of processes in which emotion regulation occurs as part of live social interactions and includes, among others, also those interpersonal interactions in which individuals turn to others to be helped or to help the others in managing emotions. Although IER may be a concept of interest in group therapy, specific theoretical insights in this field appear to be missed. In this article, we firstly provide a review of IER definitions, of classifications of IER strategies, and of IER clinical conceptualizations. Afterwards, we discuss the relevance of considering IER for group therapy, both in terms of non-specific group therapeutic factors and of group therapy techniques promoting adaptive emotion regulation, underlining the potentially relevant role of IER behaviors as intrinsically involved in group experience.

Can Less Ever Be More? A Model of Emotion Regulation Repertoire of Social Support (ERROSS)

Do people really fare better if they can rely on many social ties? Research suggests that benefits of interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) can be derived from both large and small social networks. Building on the intrapersonal regulatory flexibility model, we propose the emotion regulation repertoire of social support (ERROSS) model that views effective socioemotional support as the combination of network size and ER strategies, resulting in a repertoire of ER resources one can draw on. Best outcomes in mental health should follow from both a large network and a diverse repertoire of strategies. ERROSS is applied as an example in the context of bereavement, and specific contributions of the model are highlighted.

Being the Weather Gauge of Mood: Demystifying the Emotion Regulation of Kindergarten Principals

The study examined how emotion regulation strategies were utilised by kindergarten principals to fulfil their leading roles. In-depth interviews and document analysis were conducted with five kindergarten principals in Hong Kong. The principals linked their emotions to the psychosocial climate of the kindergartens, highlighting that emotion regulation is essential for the flourishing of the kindergartens. In line with the process model of emotion regulation, principals employed both antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation strategies throughout their work to maintain a positive and rational outlook. In addition, the study also identified that the principals employed interpersonal emotion regulation strategies to facilitate their emotion regulation through social interactions. Together, these strategies contributed to the emotional well-being of the principals, thus optimising their interactions with teachers and parents, so that the children would also benefit. Implications for emotion regulation theory and kindergarten principal leadership are discussed.

How does interpersonal emotion regulation explain psychological distress? The roles of attachment style and social support

Current studies emphasize that emotion regulation has an interpersonal aspect in addition to its intrapersonal aspect. Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) reflects the strategies that express how people use others to regulate their own emotions and is correlated with some psychological symptoms. Despite its importance, there are a limited number of studies. The present study investigates the relationships between IER, attachment style, and perceived social support. Additionally, the serial mediation model was tested to determine the mediating role of IER and social support in the relationship between anxious attachment style and psychological distress. Data were collected from 444 adults using scales assessing IER, attachment patterns, perceived social support, and psychological symptoms. Results indicated significant positive associations between IER dimensions and anxious attachment, and negative associations with avoidant attachment. The strongest correlation was between anxious attachment and soothing strategy (as one IER strategy). A structural equation model demonstrated that attachment anxiety statistically predicted depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms mediated by soothing and social support. The findings assert that IER strategies may originate from attachment styles, also explain psychological distress mediated by perceived social support.

Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Maladaptive Interpersonal Behavior in Adolescence.

Although most research conceptualizes emotion regulation as an internal process (i.e., intrapersonal), emotions are frequently regulated in an interpersonal context. Adolescents may be particularly prone to turn to peers for assistance, given that honing emotion regulation abilities is a key task and peers become increasingly important at this stage. Adolescents each participated with a self-nominated same-gender friend (total N = 186; M age = 15.68years). All participants provided self-reports of their own emotion regulation difficulties and their engagement in interpersonal behaviors (excessive reassurance seeking, negative feedback seeking, conversational self-focus, self-disclosure) as well as their perceptions of their friends' engagement in excessive reassurance seeking and conversational self-focus. Using a cross-lagged panel model design, the current study tested associations between adolescents' intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties and engagement in self- and friend-reported interpersonal emotion regulation behaviors at 3 time points over 6months. Gender and age group differences were considered. Results evidenced concurrent and longitudinal associations between emotion regulation difficulties and self-reported maladaptive (excessive reassurance seeking, conversational self-focus, negative feedback seeking), but not adaptive (self-disclosure), interpersonal regulatory behaviors. Friends' reports of adolescents' excessive reassurance seeking and conversational self-focus were associated concurrently, but not longitudinally, with self-reported emotion regulation difficulties. Implications for clinical intervention with adolescents struggling to regulate emotions are discussed.

Interpersonal emotion regulation in children: Age, gender, and cross-cultural differences using a serious game.

Interpersonal emotion regulation entails a wide array of strategies aimed at influencing others' emotions. Despite its importance for successful social interactions, only a few studies have evaluated interpersonal emotion regulation in children. In detail, the study of developmental changes in the use of emotion regulation strategies overlooked age, gender and cultural differences across different emotions. To address this gap, the present study used the serious game Emodiscovery, a simulation game targeted at 8-10-year-olds, which measures the strategies selected by children to improve the emotions of anger, sadness, and fear displayed by 3D virtual characters. One-hundred British (M = 9.10 years; 39% girls) and 108 Spanish (M = 9.04, 44% girls) 8-10-year-olds played 3 different levels or scenarios of the game. In each level, the character displayed a negative emotion (i.e., sadness, anger, and fear, respectively) and children were first asked to indicate what emotion the character was feeling and afterward to interact three times with the character to improve his or her mood. In each interaction, 4 possible regulation strategies (2 adaptive and 2 maladaptive) were displayed for children to select. Results showed that in the scenario where the character was displaying sadness, 8-year-olds chose significantly less adaptive strategies than 10-years-olds. In the scenario where the character was angry, boys who accurately recognized the emotion of anger chose more adaptive strategies than those who did not recognize the emotion. For the scenario depicting fear, boys chose less adaptive strategies than girls. The obtained results highlight the importance of looking at specific emotions when researching interpersonal emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A Comparative Analysis of Emotion-Related Cultural Norms in Popular American and Chinese Storybooks

Storybooks written for young children contain rich information on emotions and act as important educational tools for children’s emotion socialization. The current study aims to investigate how cultural norms regarding emotions are portrayed in the narratives of popular storybooks across cultures. Thus, in this study, 38 bestselling Chinese storybooks written by Chinese authors and 42 bestselling American storybooks by European-American writers were compared. The narratives were coded with a focus on emotion-related content and further analysed using binary logistic regressions. The findings revealed that American storybooks were more likely to present positive (vs. negative) emotions, negative powerful (vs. negative powerless) emotions, and supportive (vs. unsupportive and teaching) responses to negative emotions than Chinese storybooks, but less likely to present social (vs. personal) themes, other-based (vs. self-based) attribution, and teaching (vs. supportive and unsupportive) responses to negative emotions. However, the results found no cultural variation in the prevalence of intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) interpersonal emotion regulation. The findings suggest that elements of emotion-related content coexist in both cultures although the relative salience of such content differs across cultures.

Examining the associations between interpersonal emotion regulation and psychosocial adjustment in emerging adulthood

Effective emotion regulation is central to emerging adults’ positive psychosocial adjustment. Research has focused largely on intrapersonal emotion regulation processes (i.e., individuals’ tendencies to regulate their emotions on their own). Consequently, there is limited understanding of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER), which emphasizes how individuals use social interactions to regulate their emotions, and its associations with adaptive and maladaptive psychosocial adjustment outcomes. The objective of this study was to explore the associations between IER strategies and psychosocial adjustment outcomes among emerging adults. Emerging adults (N = 790) completed an online questionnaire on their IER strategy use, internalizing symptoms, well-being, and relationship quality. Structural equation modeling results indicated that greater engagement in enhancing positive affect and perspective taking was significantly associated with lower internalizing symptoms and greater well-being. Perspective taking was also significantly associated with higher relationship quality. Greater engagement in soothing was significantly associated with higher internalizing symptoms and lower well-being. Greater engagement in social modelling was only significantly associated with higher internalizing symptoms. The findings contribute to research by examining IER in emerging adulthood and broadening our understanding of the IER strategies that are important for psychosocial adjustment.