Trait Emotion Regulation Research Articles

Cluster analysis of personality traits in psychiatric patients with borderline personality disorder

BackgroundThough the heterogeneous expression of symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is well-known, it is far from fully understood. Hybrid models combining dimensional and categorical ways of diagnosing BPD have been suggested to better handle this heterogeneity, but more research is needed. The aim of this study was to identify potential clusters in BPD, and evaluate if these clusters differed in diagnostic composition, severity, psychiatric symptoms, emotion regulation and control, or sociodemographic features.MethodsClusters were based on personality traits measured with the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP) in 141 psychiatric patients diagnosed with BPD. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using Ward’s method. We used one-way analysis of variance to explore the different clusters’ properties. Effect sizes were calculated using partial eta squared.ResultsWe found three distinct clusters: the lower psychopathology cluster (N = 67), the externalizing cluster (N = 28), and the internalizing cluster (N = 46). The clusters differed regarding trait composition, severity, and emotion regulation and control.ConclusionsOur findings support hybrid models for diagnosing BPD by showing that clusters differed in terms of both severity (lower and higher psychopathology) and personality traits/style (internalizing and externalizing). Assessment of personality traits may be a feasible way to differentiate between clusters. In the future, this knowledge might be used to personalize treatment.

Pathways from insecure attachment to paranoia: the mediating role of emotion regulation

Paranoia is common across the clinical and non-clinical spectrum. Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis currently yields modest results, warranting research into symptom-specific maintenance factors to improve outcomes. There is strong evidence of a relationship between insecure attachment and increased paranoia, but little is known about the mediating mechanisms. Emotion dysregulation is associated with both insecure attachment and paranoia, and a candidate causal mechanism. This study aimed to determine if emotion dysregulation mediates the association between attachment and paranoia. Sixty-two individuals with elevated paranoia were recruited from NHS services and community settings across the South of England. Mediation analyses were conducted on trait attachment, emotion regulation and paranoia variables, which were collected at one time point. As predicted, emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between attachment avoidance and paranoia, and between attachment anxiety and paranoia. Emotion suppression did not mediate the relationship between attachment avoidance and paranoia, possibly due to power. Attachment avoidance correlated with deactivating emotion regulation strategies (e.g. lack of emotional awareness) and attachment anxiety correlated with hyperactivating emotion regulation strategies (e.g. impulse control difficulties). Both deactivating and hyperactivating strategies correlated with paranoia. Emotion dysregulation is not routinely targeted in cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis. This study suggests that incorporating emotion regulation strategies in therapy may improve clinical outcomes. Experimental studies are now required to support a causal argument, and pilot intervention studies should investigate if emotion regulation skills development (aligned with attachment style) is effective in reducing non-clinical and clinical paranoia.

Acute Alcohol Intoxication, State Anger, and Sexual Assault Perpetration: The Role of State Emotion Regulation.

Alcohol-involved sexual assault remains a pervasive problem, with extensive individual- and societal-level costs. Emotion regulation (ER), the process through which an individual modulates emotional states, remains an understudied predictor of sexual assault perpetration, with past research focusing on general ER tendencies (e.g., trait ER) as predictors of sexual assault perpetration. This study sought to examine the associations between state ER on sexual assault perpetration in the context of state anger and acute alcohol intoxication. Single, male social drinkers aged 21-30 with a history of sexual risk-taking (N = 92) participated in an alcohol administration paradigm and were randomly assigned to an alcohol condition [sober control vs. intoxicated (BrAC = .10%)]. Intoxicated and sober participants completed a sexual assault analogue that assessed state anger, state ER, and sexual assault perpetration intentions against a hypothetical female partner. Path analysis demonstrated interactive effects of state ER and state anger on sexual assault perpetration intentions. Relative to men with low and moderate levels of anger, state ER was associated with lower intentions to perpetrate sexual assault for men with high levels of anger. Alcohol intoxication did not directly predict state ER, state anger, or sexual assault perpetration intentions. The results suggested that state ER may be protective against sexual assault perpetration for men who experience anger in response to a partner's expression of non-consent. Because replication is necessary, the results carry tentative implications for state ER as an intervention target for sexual assault prevention programming.

Associations between clinicians' emotion regulation, treatment recommendations, and patient suicidal ideation.

This study examines how clinicians' emotional responses to suicidal patients and their emotion regulation abilities are related to their treatment recommendations for these patients and to patients' concurrent suicidal ideation and at one-month follow-up. Adult psychiatric outpatients (N=361) and the mental health professionals evaluating them for treatment (N=43) completed self-report assessments following their first clinical meeting. Clinician emotion regulation traits, emotional responses to individual patients, and the recommended intensity of treatment were assessed. Patients were assessed for suicidal ideation immediately following the initial meeting and at a one-month follow-up. Moderation and mediation analyses were performed to examine the relationships between study variables. Patient suicidal ideation at the initial clinical encounter was associated with increased negative emotions in clinicians with lower emotion regulation. Further, recommended treatment intensity was associated with clinicians' negative emotional responses but not with patient suicidal ideation among clinicians with lower emotion regulation. Treatment intensification is related to clinicians' emotion regulation abilities. Clinicians' attention to their emotional responses may facilitate improved treatment process and ultimately may improve suicidal outcomes.

Are Emotion Regulation Strategies Associated With Visual Attentional Breadth for Emotional Information in Youth?

Attentional deployment is currently considered as one of the most central mechanisms in emotion regulation (ER) as it is assumed to be a crucial first step in the selection of emotional information. According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions are associated with attentional broadening and negative emotions with attentional narrowing toward emotional information. Given that ER strategies relying on attentional deployment (i.e., rumination, cognitive reappraisal and distraction) have the possibility to influence positive and negative emotions by (re)directing one’s attention, there could be an association with one’s attentional scope. The current study investigated the association between the general (trait) use of three specific ER strategies and visual attentional breadth for positive, negative, and neutral information in a selected sample of 56 adolescents (M = 12.54, SD = 1.72; 49% girls) at risk for developing psychopathology. First, participants self-reported on their overall use of different ER strategies. Next, the previously validated Attentional Breadth Task (ABT) was used to measure visual attention breadth toward emotional information. No evidence was found for the relationship between 2 specific ER strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and rumination) and visual attentional breadth for neutral, positive and negative emotional information. Surprisingly, “distraction” was associated with visual attentional narrowing, which was unrelated to the valence of the emotion. These unexpected results indicate the multifaceted relationship between trait ER, distraction specifically, and visual attentional breadth for emotional information. Future research, especially in younger age groups, could further elaborate on this research domain.

Emotion regulation strategies moderate the impact of negative affect induction on alcohol craving in college drinkers: an experimental paradigm

Objectives: Observational studies suggest emotion regulation (ER) as a potential treatment target for problematic college drinking. The primary aim of this laboratory study was to determine whether trait ER strategies would moderate the impact of negative affect induction on alcohol craving in college drinkers. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to a neutral (n = 74) or a negative affect induction (n = 76) and reported their craving after the affect inductions. Results: Greater use of drinking to cope and less use of cognitive reappraisal predicted greater alcohol craving after the negative affect induction, but not after the neutral condition. In contrast, emotion suppression did not predict alcohol craving in either condition. Conclusion: Our results highlight the role of ER tendencies—particularly the benefits of cognitive reappraisal—on alcohol craving when experiencing emotional distress. Therefore, ER strategies may be an important target for college drinkers to prevent and reduce problematic drinking.

Ability and non-ability traits in chess skill

Chess is an appropriate model to study ability and non-ability traits as related with performance because it bears intellectual and emotional demanding requirements. With a group of amateur chess players (n = 100), the current study addressed two interrelated aims. First, we assessed whether the three broad PEN personality factors (psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism), and emotion regulation traits (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) differentiated chess players from the general population. Second, we compared the association of domain knowledge and personality/emotion traits with chess skill. The main findings indicated that chess players scored lower in neuroticism and higher in expressive suppression compared with the general population. Moreover, chess knowledge related in a greater extent with chess skill than personality/emotion regulation traits, even though extraversion explained additional variability in chess skill. Overall, the findings suggest that non-ability traits may be influential in the selection of the chess environment. Besides, the findings corroborate the stronger impact of cognitive ability than personality traits on intellectual performance found in other domains.

Negative Affect and Performance on Exam Day in College Students: The Role of Self-Regulation

In the U.S., college transition grows increasingly difficult, with students experiencing rising levels of stress and anxiety. Such challenges may arise as students face normative but novice stressors while working towards professional goals. Students’ ability to engage in successful self-regulation may be especially important in response to these challenges. The goals of the present study were to assess a) the mediating role of self-regulatory behaviors on the relationship between trait emotion regulation and negative affect (NA) on the day of a first major college exam; and, b) the mediating role of exam-day NA on the relationship between self-regulatory behaviors and exam performance. Results show that trait-level challenges in emotion regulation are associated with increased procrastination behaviors in the days before the exam, which in turn is associated with higher NA on exam day. Implications are discussed for well-being and success of students, particularly for students who struggle with self-regulation.

The Mediating Effects of Self-Esteem on Anxiety and Emotion Regulation.

Individuals with anxiety disorders maladaptively appraise interpersonal threat cues leading to inaccurate interpretations of the self and others. However, little is known about the factors that mediate this association, therefore, the main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between state and trait anxiety, self-esteem, and emotion regulation strategies: reappraisal and suppression. Young adults aged between 18–26 years participated in the study. They completed a set of self-reports measuring emotion regulation, self-esteem, state-trait anxiety, and positive and negative attributes. Participants also completed an experimental task, using the dot-probe paradigm, which measures threat bias and response inhibition. The findings showed that trait and state anxiety predicted suppression, reappraisal, and internalising problems, and is linked to response inhibition. Importantly, low self-esteem, significantly mediated the relationship between increased anxiety and suppression. Taken together, these results show specific associations between emotion regulation and anxiety, highlighting the significant impact of self-esteem in young adults.

State emotion modulation and loss-of-control eating in individuals with obesity: A preliminary ecological momentary assessment study

There is ample evidence linking broad trait emotion regulation deficits and negative affect with loss-of-control (LOC)-eating among individuals with obesity and binge eating, however, few studies have examined emotion regulation at the state-level. Within and across day fluctuations in the ability to modulate emotion (or regulate emotional and behavioral responses), one facet of state emotion regulation, may be a more robust momentary predictor of LOC-eating than momentary negative affect and trait emotion regulation ability. As such, the current study tested if daily emotion modulation, and daily variability in emotion modulation differed on days with and without LOC-eating episodes, and if momentary emotion modulation was associated with subsequent LOC-eating episodes. For two weeks individuals (N = 14) with obesity and binge eating completed surveys as part of an ecological momentary assessment study. Participants reported on current ability to modulate emotion, LOC-eating, and current negative affect. On LOC-eating days compared to non-LOC-eating days, ability to modulate emotion was poorer (β =0.10, p < .001) and average variability in ability to modulation emotions was greater (β = 0.56, p = .008), even when controlling for negative affect. Greater momentary difficulty modulating emotion was associated with a 40% increase in subsequent risk for LOC-eating (ß = 0.34, p = .071, OR = 1.40). Findings from this pilot study suggest that individuals with obesity report poorer ability to modulate emotion and greater variability in ability to modulate emotion on LOC-eating days, even when controlling for negative affect. Future research should replicate findings and further elucidate the relationships between state emotion regulation, negative affect, and LOC-eating.

A pilot investigation of emotional regulation difficulties and mindfulness-based strategies in manic and remitted bipolar I disorder and major depressive disorder

BackgroundBoth bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder are characterized by difficulties in emotion regulation. Little is known about which specific emotion regulatory patterns may be transdiagnostic versus disorder specific, and how such patterns change as a function of current mood states.MethodsThis preliminary investigation examined specific patterns of self-reported trait emotion regulation difficulties and mindfulness-based regulations strategies across four groups: remitted adults with bipolar I disorder (BD-remitted; n = 32), currently manic adults with bipolar I disorder (BD-manic; n = 19), remitted adults with major depressive disorder (MDD-remitted; n = 32), and healthy controls (CTL; n = 30).ResultsAll three clinical groups reported significantly greater difficulties with emotion regulation and decreased overall mindfulness-based strategies.ConclusionsThese results suggest that increased emotion regulation difficulties, decreased mindfulness, and increased emotion-driven impulsivity may be transdiagnostic across mood disorders and states, and that impulsivity may be particularly impaired during periods of mania.

Mind your gaze: Examining the relation between trait mindfulness and visual attention to valenced images

Trait mindfulness pertains to one’s ability to non-judgmentally attend to experiences. While attention regulation represents a core component of mindfulness, the relation between trait mindfulness and visual attention is unclear. Further, despite established associations between mindfulness and emotion regulation, few studies have examined whether trait mindfulness may be related to attention to emotionally valenced content. Thus, the present study used an eye-tracking paradigm to assess relations between trait mindfulness, emotion regulation and selective visual attention to valenced stimuli. Participants (N = 123; 75.6 % female; 87 % Caucasian; Mage = 19.14 years) completed measures of trait mindfulness, emotion regulation, and engaged in an eye-tracking paradigm in which they viewed sad, threatening, neutral, and happy images simultaneously. Dwell times on images (all categories combined), black space on screen, and each image category were calculated. Bivariate correlations were assessed to determine the relations among mindfulness, emotion regulation, and visual attention, controlling for mood. Trait mindfulness was associated with longer dwell time on images overall, but specifically longer dwell time on threatening and happy images. Although trait mindfulness and emotion regulation were positively associated, emotion regulation was not significantly associated with visual attention. These results suggest that trait mindfulness is associated with visual attention to valenced stimuli, particularly happy and threatening images, and emotion regulation does not account for these relations. These findings add to our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying trait mindfulness.

Effectiveness of a mindfulness-oriented substance use prevention program for boys with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BackgroundBoys with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (MBID) are at particular risk to drink in harmful ways once they start to consume alcohol. Interventions based on mindfulness have been proven to be effective in preventing substance use, but mostly for adults with MBID. A mindfulness oriented intervention targeting 11–17 years old boys will be tested in a randomised controlled trial. Study aim is to investigate the benefits of this new intervention compared to an active control condition within a 12 months follow-up.MethodsIn this randomised controlled proof of concept study, 82 boys with MBID who consumed any alcohol during the last year will be randomised either to the 6 week mindfulness oriented intervention or the control group receiving a control intervention equal in dose and length. The intervention group undergoes mindfulness training combined with interactive drug education, while the control group completes a health training combined with the same education. In the intention-to-treat analysis the primary outcome is the self-reported delay of first post-intervention drunkeness within a 12 months follow-up time span, measured weekly with a short app-based questionnaire. Secondary outcome is the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs within 30 days post-intervention. Changes in neurobiological behavioural parameters, such as impulse control, reward anticipation, and decision making, are also investigated. Other secondary outcomes regard trait mindfulness, emotion regulation, psychopathological symptoms, peer networks, perceived stress, and quality of life. In addition, a prospective registry will be established to record specific data on the population of 11–17 year old boys with MBID without any alcohol experience.DiscussionThis study offers the opportunity to gain first evidence of the effectiveness of a mindfulness-oriented program for the prevention of substance use for boys with MBID.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00014042. Registered on March 19th 2018.

Maladaptive emotion regulation traits predict altered corticolimbic recovery from psychosocial stress

BackgroundAdaptive recovery from stress promotes healthy cognitive affective functioning, whereas maladaptive recovery is linked to poor psychological outcomes. Neural regions, like the anterior cingulate and hippocampus, play critical roles in psychosocial stress responding and serve as hubs in the corticolimbic neural system. To date, however, it is unknown how cognitive emotion regulation traits (cER), adaptive and maladaptive, influence corticolimbic stress recovery. Here, we examined acute psychosocial stress neural recovery, accounting for cER. MethodsFunctional neuroimaging data were collected while forty-seven healthy participants performed blocks of challenging, time-sensitive, mental calculations. Participants immediately received performance feedback (positive/negative/neutral) and their ranking, relative to fictitious peers. Participants rested for 90 seconds after each feedback, allowing for a neural stress recovery period. Collected before scanning, cER scores were correlated with neural activity during each recovery condition. ResultsNegative feedback recovery yielded increased activity within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, but this effect was ultimately explained by maladaptive cER (M-cER), like rumination. Isolating positive after-effects (i.e. positive > negative recovery) yielded a significant positive correlation between M-cER and the anterior cingulate, anterior insula, hippocampus, and striatum. ConclusionsWe provide first evidence of M-cER to predict altered neural recovery from positive stress within corticolimbic regions. Positive feedback may be potentially threatening to individuals with poor stress regulation. Identifying positive stress-induced activation patterns in corticolimbic neural networks linked to M-cER creates the possibility to identify these neural responses as risk factors for social-emotional dysregulation subsequent to rewarding social information, often witnessed in affective disorders, like depression.

Trait Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation upon Autobiographical Memory Retrieval during Depression Remission

ObjectivesDepression is associated with both emotion dysregulation upon retrieval of autobiographical memories and low trait mindfulness. The present study raised the question of whether these processes are related to each other and whether they may reflect a cognitive-affective vulnerability in individuals at risk of depression. The study examined emotion regulation in response to involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories during depression remission and explored how trait mindfulness relates to such emotion regulation.MethodsThe study employed a naturalistic design in which individuals with remitted depression (n = 35) and individuals with no history of depression (n = 32) completed a trait mindfulness measure and a structured memory diary where they rated state use of five emotion regulation strategies upon involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory retrieval.ResultsIndividuals with remitted depression reported heightened brooding in response to autobiographical memories when memory retrieval occurred involuntarily, and trait mindfulness was low. Depression remission and higher trait mindfulness were independently associated with greater cognitive reappraisal efforts upon involuntary retrieval of autobiographical memories. Higher trait mindfulness predicted less memory suppression, irrespective of depression history and memory retrieval mode.ConclusionsThe findings suggest a vulnerability in emotional processing of autobiographical memories during depression remission that is dependent on mindfulness skill level and how memories come to mind.

Ecological validity of trait emotion regulation strategy measures.

Research on emotion regulation (ER) strategies has often relied on trait self-report measures, where individuals retrospectively report their tendency to engage in a specific strategy. Although this method is convenient and useful in many clinical and research settings, it is subject to a number of response and memory biases and may not accurately reflect ER as it is naturalistically employed in daily life. We examined the ecological validity of 10 self-report measures of ER strategies (i.e., acceptance, behavioral avoidance, experiential avoidance, expressive suppression, procrastination, reappraisal, reflection, rumination, savoring, social support) with their reported daily use in intensive longitudinal designs in two samples (109 students, 135 treatment-seeking adults). Zero-order correlations revealed convergence between most trait measures and their daily ER strategy counterparts. However, analyses evaluating the specificity of trait measures in their associations with daily ER strategies (both zero-order and multivariate) did not support trait measures' discriminant validity. Rather, correlations between trait measures and factors of the between-person variance in daily ER strategies suggest that most ER trait measures may reflect broader tendencies to use or not use avoidance strategies in daily life. Implications for research using trait measures of ER strategies and recommendations for ER strategy assessment are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Health anxiety, cyberchondria, and coping in the current COVID-19 pandemic: Which factors are related to coronavirus anxiety?

According to cognitive-behavioral models, traits, triggering events, cognitions, and adverse behaviors play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of health anxiety. During virus outbreaks, anxiety is widespread. However, the role of trait health anxiety, cyberchondria, and coping in the context of virus anxiety during the current COVID-19 pandemic has not yet been studied. An online survey was conducted in the German general population (N = 1615, 79.8 % female, Mage = 33.36 years, SD = 13.18) in mid-March 2020, which included questionnaires on anxiety associated with SARS-CoV-2, trait health anxiety, cyberchondriaPandemic (i.e. excessive online information search), and emotion regulation. The participants reported a significantly increasing virus anxiety in recent months (previous months recorded retrospectively), especially among individuals with heightened trait health anxiety. CyberchondriaPandemic showed positive correlations with current virus anxiety (r = .09–.48), and this relationship was additionally moderated by trait health anxiety. A negative correlation was found between the perception of being informed about the pandemic and the current virus anxiety (r=-.18), with adaptive emotion regulation being a significant moderator for this relationship. The findings suggest that trait health anxiety and cyberchondria serve as risk factors, whereas information about the pandemic and adaptive emotion regulation might represent buffering factors for anxiety during a virus pandemic.

Aggression and Somatic Symptoms: the Role of Emotion Regulation and Distress Tolerance.

The current study used a longitudinal design (via three biweekly assessments) to assess the association of state aggression and somatic symptoms and the potential role of trait emotion regulation and distress tolerance in these associations in a sample of 186 college students. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the influence of state psychological aggression and state physical aggression on somatic symptoms (i.e., within-person variables) and the moderation of emotion regulation and distress tolerance (i.e., between-person variables) on the relation between aggression and somatic symptoms. The results indicated that state psychological aggression was positively associated with somatic symptoms. Emotion regulation moderated the influence of psychological aggression on somatic symptoms, in which psychological aggression was associated with somatic symptoms among those who reported medium and high levels of difficulties in emotion regulation, but not those with low levels of difficulties in emotion regulation. Distress tolerance did not moderate the association between aggression and somatic symptoms. The current findings speak to the importance of including the assessment of psychological aggression in health promotion programs and medical visits and identifying emotion regulation as a treatment marker for those with somatic symptoms.

Emotion Regulation Difficulties Are Not Always Associated With Negative Outcomes on Women: The Buffer Effect of HRV.

The Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is regularly associated with depression and trait emotion regulation. However, the interaction between HRV and emotional disturbances is still debated. Only a few studies indicate that HRV moderates the effect of personality traits involved in psychopathological disorders. Since the regulation of emotions is a transdiagnostic factor for most psychological disorders, this study aimed to explore whether HRV moderates the relationship between trait emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms. We collected data from 148 participants via online questionnaires and HRV measurements at rest. Results show for the 114 female remaining in the study that whereas high emotion regulation difficulties led to higher depressive symptoms severity when resting HRV is low, depressive symptoms remain stable in the same condition but when resting HRV is high. Overall, high resting HRV appears to dampen the consequences of trait emotion regulation difficulties. Further studies are needed to confirm this result, but this suggests that usual response tendencies could be overcome by deactivating or inhibitory processes such as those implied in cognitive flexibility reflected through HRV, according to the neurovisceral integration model.

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.