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Transdiagnostic

(SSCP1-11) SSCP Submission: Demystifying Emotion Regulation Repertoire in Daily Life: How It Is Conceptualized and How It Can Be Measured

Friday, November 15, 2024
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM EST
Location: Grand Ballroom A, Level 5, Downtown Marriott
Abstract Text: The emotion regulation (ER) repertoire has been theorized as important for momentary affect and psychopathological outcomes. Meanwhile, the definition of ER repertoire varies in the existing literature. Some researchers define the ER repertoire as the number of strategies used, while others consider it the variability or diversity of strategy. These varying definitions have led to mixed findings and a failure to replicate results across studies. In this study, we tested two common operationalizations of the ER repertoire –  the number of strategies and the variability of strategies, as well as an idiographic approach that uses individuals’ data to compute the most effective strategy and then counts the number of effective strategies in each situation. We compared the association between these three operationalizations of ER repertoire with momentary affects to see which one produced the most consistent predictive pattern on 21-day Ecological Momentary Assessment data from adult civilians in two culturally distinct populations: the United States (158 participants, 12,217 observations) and China (144 participants, 11,347 observations). Participants reported on emotional situations, ER strategy use, and momentary distress four times daily. The results from the two studies showed similar effects, in which the idiographic approach to counting the number of effective strategies has a negative association with momentary distress (b = -1.05, p < .001 in China; b = -1.38, p < .001 in the USA); the number of strategies has a positive association with momentary distress (b = 0.47, p < .001 in China; b = 0.57, p < .001 in the USA), and the variability of ER strategy showed similar findings (b = 2.95, p < .001 in China; b = 5.17, p < .001 in the USA). Together, these findings suggest that using individual data to derive effective ER strategies specific to an individual and using this information to calculate the repertoire offers promising pathways through which we can further research ER repertoire and affective science.