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

Abstract

Introduction: Despite 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 irst 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. Speciically, 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. Methods: Adolescents (n = 71; 33 girls and 38 boys; M age = 12.70 years) residing in Canada completed twice-daily diary surveys for 14 days. Results: Findings 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 beneits, whereas co-rumination through social media predicted diminished positive affect. We also identiied ways these indings differed by gender. Conclusions: Implications for adolescents' emotional and social development and the ield of corumination are discussed.

Attentional Biases and their Push and Pull with Rumination and Co-Rumination is Based on Depressive Symptoms: a Prospective Study of Adolescents

“…The finding that a positive cognitive bias was associated with greater interpersonal ER aligns with interpretation bias research documenting that a positive interpretation bias for emotionally ambiguous faces is associated with greater social connectedness (Neta & Brock, 2021). Moreover, this finding parallels the paradoxical nature of co-rumination in that, although co-rumination is associated with negative mental health outcomes including depression, it also predicts enhanced friendship quality (e.g., Battaglini et al, 2021;Rose et al, 2007Rose et al, , 2014.…”

“…Like rumination, co-rumination involves the frequent and repetitive rehashing of problems, dwelling on negative feelings, and speculation about the causes and consequences of problems. Moreover, co-rumination has similarly been conceptualized as serving an emotion regulatory function (e.g., Battaglini et al, 2021 ; Waller et al, 2014 ) because its use is intended to modify emotional experiences (see Dixon-Gordon et al, 2015 ). Despite the negative implications co-rumination has for emotional wellbeing (e.g., increases in depression), particularly among girls (Rose et al, 2007 ), researchers have not yet investigated mechanisms underlying this interpersonal ER strategy.…”

“…However, co-rumination also differs from rumination in key respects, both in terms of its defining characteristics and its outcomes, which suggests that the pattern of mechanisms underlying rumination and co-rumination may also differ in important ways. For example, unlike rumination, co-rumination occurs within the course of an interpersonal interaction, is characterized by self-disclosure and mutual encouragement to discuss problems (Rose, 2002 ), and has been associated with enhanced friendship quality (Battaglini et al, 2021 ; Felton et al, 2019 ). Given that co-rumination is overlapping yet distinct from rumination, research is needed to elucidate whether attentional disengagement biases represent a shared mechanism underlying both rumination and co-rumination in youth.…”

Advances in stress and depression research

“…Likewise, although Metts et al [29] documented that greater support from friends predicted lower depressive symptoms, this support did not buffer the effects of early-life adversity on elevated risk for depression. Consistent with the IER findings described above [19 ▪ ,20 ▪ ], this may be explained, in part, by the way that individuals communicate. For example, Rodman et al [30 ▪▪ ] examined adolescents’ social communication as a mediator of associations between stress exposure and internalizing psychopathology.…”

The Association of Emotion Regulation Flexibility and Negative and Positive Affect in Daily Life

“…If no event occurred, participants were still asked to report the amount that they used each ER strategy that day. 1 Consistent with past daily diary research (e.g., Battaglini et al, 2021 ; Starr, 2015 ), one or two items were used to assess each of the five ER strategies to reduce participant burden and enhance compliance. The cognitive reappraisal and suppression items were derived from the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003 ) and past intensive longitudinal studies (Brockman et al, 2017 ; Kashdan & Steger, 2006 ).…”