Emotion beliefs are associated with emotion regulation strategies and emotional distress

Abstract

Emotion regulation strategies such as rumination and suppression have been consistently associated with distress and psychopathology. However, it is not yet known why people engage in maladaptive strategies instead of adaptive strategies despite their negative consequences. Beliefs about emotion have been theorized to influence which emotion regulation strategies are used, and therefore, the development of emotional disorders. This research seeks to test these predictions. We present a cross-sectional study (N = 400) using confirmatory factor analysis, as well as mediation analysis within a structural equation modeling framework. Beliefs that emotions are undesirable and uncontrollable emerged as interrelated yet separate factors. Both types of beliefs were associated with emotional distress (r = .36 for emotion undesirability, r = .53 for emotion uncontrollability), and more use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (r = .32; r = .44; respectively). SEM analyses showed that maladaptive emotion regulation strategies mediated the link between undesirability and uncontrollability beliefs and emotional distress. These results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that negative beliefs about emotions influence the use of generally maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, intensifying symptomatology.