Emotion regulation strategies in daily life: mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression

Abstract

Most empirical studies of emotion regulation have relied on retrospective trait measures, and have not examined the link between daily regulatory strategies and every day emotional well-being. We used a daily diary methodology with multilevel modelling data analyses (n = 187) to examine the influence of three emotion regulation strategies (mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression) on the experience of daily negative and positive affect. Our results suggested that daily mindfulness was associated with lower negative and higher positive affect whereas the converse pattern was found for daily emotion suppression; cognitive reappraisal was related to daily positive, but not negative affect. When daily mindfulness, suppression and reappraisal were included in the same models, these strategies predicted unique variance in emotional well-being. Random slope analyses revealed substantial variability in the utility of these strategies. Indeed the presumably "adaptive" cognitive reappraisal strategy seemed to confer no benefit to the regulation of negative affect in approximately half the sample. Additional analyses revealed that age moderates the effect of cognitive reappraisal on daily negative affect: Higher use of reappraisal was associated with more negative affect for adolescents (aged 17 to 19) but became associated with less negative affect with increasing age. We interpret these results in line with a contextual view of emotion regulation where no strategy is inherently "good" or "bad".

The Relationship of Discomforting Factors with Coping Strategies Among Patients in Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Units

“…However, 2 studies in Dutch and Brazil showed that ICU survivors mainly used problem-focused strategies (36,37). Emotional reactions are learned while dealing with difficult conditions and need to be regulated (38), while gaining the ability to use problem -focused strategies requires education and training (39). Therefore, given the lack of preoperative psychological preparation in the present study, patients' greater use of emotion-focused strategies for coping with postoperative problems is justified.…”

Cognitive reappraisal and acceptance: Effects on emotion, physiology, and perceived cognitive costs.

“…A recent daily diary investigation provides preliminary support for this hypothesis—daily mindfulness (of which acceptance is a core component) was used nearly twice as often as daily reappraisal, and the use of mindfulness was more strongly tied to decreased negative affect than reappraisal (Brockman, Ciarrochi, Parker, & Kashdan, 2017). This study did not directly examine the use of acceptance, however.…”

Examining the Structure of Negative Affect Regulation and Its Association With Hedonic and Psychological Wellbeing

“…Most of these forms are a response to emotional stress and are associated with negative affect as a coping response. Social support, gratitude and self-reward, reappraisal, and regulated expression are only associated with positive affect and not to negative affect (Brockman et al, 2017). This means that these forms could be conceived as being based on dispositional positive affect or as improving positive affect when coping with negative events.…”