(PS10-21) Differential Relationships Between Emotion Dysregulation and Psychopathology Symptoms Among Black and White Americans

Emotion dysregulation is associated with the experience of symptoms of depression and anxiety, borderline personality disorder features, and frequent and intense negative emotions. (Gross et al., 2006; Hayes et al., 2004). Much of the emotion dysregulation literature focuses on primarily White samples, though. Recent research indicates that the associations between negative emotions and symptoms of psychopathology may not be as strongly associated for Black American participants as for White Americans (Harmon & Cheavens, in preparation). As such, we sought to examine whether the association between emotion dysregulation and symptoms of psychopathology are moderated by race.

Participants from the community and university (N = 400, 42% Black, 57.50% White), reported demographics, habitual difficulties in emotion regulation (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004), and perceived social support (MSPSS; Zimet et al., 1988). We also derived a standardized composite psychopathology score from participants’ scores on the Patient Health Questionanaire-9 (Kroenke & Spitzer, 2002), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (Spitzer et al., 2006), and Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Scale (Morey, 1991). With regression analyses, we found that race significantly moderated the relationship between impulse control difficulties (i.e., DERS_I) and psychopathology symptoms, t(384) = 4.78, p < .001. The relationship between DERS_I and psychopathology was weaker for Black participants (B = .06, t(384) = 5.84, p</em> < .001) than White participants (B = .13, t(384) = 14.06, p</em> < .001). Similarly, race significantly moderated the association between lack of emotional awareness (i.e., DERS_L) and psychopathological symptoms (t(384) = 2.68, p = .008). This relationship was significant for White (B = .07, t(384) = 6.64, p < .001), but not Black participants (B = .02, t(384) = 1.11, p = .268). Finally, we found a significant race by DERS total score by MSPSS interaction, t(206) = 2.37, p</em> = .018. Unpacking this three-way interaction, we found that for Black participants with high levels of social support (B = .01, t(206) = 4.62, p < .001), the relationship between DERS and psychopathology symptoms is weaker than it is for White participants with high social support (B = .03, t(206) = 7.92, p < .001). Additionally, at lower levels of social support, the relationship between DERS and symptoms is similar for Black (B = .03, t(206) = 7.50, p < .001) and White (B = .02, t(206) = 9.30, p < .001) participants.

These results indicate that connections between emotion dysregulation and psychological well-being are not consistent across all racial groups. Additionally, social support may uniquely buffer negative effects of emotion dysregulation for Black participants. Future researchers should test this experimentally to determine causal relationships.