Comparing positive reappraisal and mindfulness in relation to daily emotions during COVID‐19: An experience sampling study

Abstract

Research has suggested that daily cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness are differentially associated with emotional experience. Nevertheless, the different relationship between these two emotion regulation strategies and emotional experience remains unexplored amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic, when people were facing unprecedented challenges and disruptions in their everyday lives. The current study aimed to examine the potential unidirectional or bidirectional relations between two strategies and daily emotional experience during the COVID‐19 pandemic and whether the associations between the two strategies and emotional experience varied. A total of 184 college students participated in this study. Daily positive reappraisal, mindful attention and awareness (MAA), positive and negative affect, and COVID‐19‐related stress were assessed utilizing experience sampling method (three times a day for 14 consecutive days). Results suggested that the directionality of the link between the two strategies and daily emotional experience differed. The links between positive reappraisal and positive affect, negative affect, and COVID‐19‐related stress were transactional. However, a unidirectional relation was observed between positive affect and subsequent MAA. The study provided support for the contextual perspective of emotion regulation by demonstrating that the efficacy of regulation strategies is contingent upon the context. The identification of optimal conditions for effective strategies remains a crucial area for future research.

Socio-cognitive mindfulness is a well-being booster: a serial mediation model to test the mindfulness reappraisal hypothesis with managers

“…Complementarily, mindfulness fosters an attitude of nonjudgmental awareness. By cultivating a stance of curiosity and acceptance toward their thoughts and feelings, individuals can observe their mental and emotional patterns without self-criticism (He et al, 2024). By making individuals acceptant of what happens to them and having a non-judgmental attitude towards others or what surrounds them makes them experience more often positive affect which is a key predictor of well-being (Hanley et al, 2014;Tsai et al, 2024).…”

“…the ability to influence emotions; McRae and Gross, 2020) has been disregarded as part of the MMT (Garland et al, 2017). Further, some studies have shown that individuals' ability to regulate their own emotions not only influenced their experienced emotions but also more stable states, such as well-being (Burnham and Kocovski, 2024;He et al, 2024).…”

“…Furthermore, only recently scholars have devoted importance to the role of mindfulness in the work context (e.g. Badham and King, 2021;Glomb et al, 2011;Good et al, 2016;He et al, 2024;Junça-Silva et al, 2021;Pirson et al, 2018). Hence, this study aims to expand the knowledge on the role of mindfulness for employees' related well-being and is focused on the process through which it occurs.…”