Background: Self-help interventions intended to help nonclinical individuals regulate their emotions can have important social benefits (i.e., mental disorder prevention, wellbeing promotion). However, their mean effect size on wellbeing is generally low, possibly because there are considerable betweenindividual differences in the response to these interventions. The present study examined whether individuals' baseline levels of emotional wellbeing and engagement in emotion regulation strategies moderate the effects on these same variables of a 4-week self-help cognitive-behavioral intervention intended for typical adults.Methods: Data were collected from 158 nonclinical French adults (n = 95 for the control group, n = 63 for the cognitive-behavioral group) using experience sampling. Emotional wellbeing was assessed, as well as the engagement in three emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal, problem solving, and appreciation).Results: As expected, the posttest scores on some variables were significantly predicted by the interactions between the intervention and the pretest scores on these same variables. In particular, it was the participants with the most negative baseline levels (i.e., low emotional wellbeing, low engagement in appreciation) who benefitted most from the intervention. Discussion: Results are discussed in the light of current knowledge on between-individual differences in how individuals respond to interventions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.