(PS2-37) Regulatory Emotional Self-efficacy Predicts Social Affiliation Processes and Outcomes Among Adults with Anxiety or Depression

Social disconnection is common in adults with anxiety or depression. Research indicates that belief about one's ability to regulate emotions plays an important role in psychosocial functioning, though little is known about how these perceptions relate to social outcomes in adult clinical samples. The primary aim of this study was to examine how regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE) beliefs relate to social affiliation processes (i.e., emotion regulation, affect, and behaviors) and outcomes (perceived connectedness) in individuals within this population.

Participants included adults who endorsed clinically elevated anxiety and/or depression (N = 117, mean age was 29 years, 63.2% identified as women, 26.5% identified as Hispanic/Latino, and 55.6% identified with a race category other than White). Participants interacted with a trained confederate during a standardized social affiliation task designed to induce connectedness; partners answered a series of increasingly intimate questions about themselves. Participant RESE beliefs for positive and negative emotions were collected before the task, while expressive suppression, positive and negative affect, and approach and avoidance behaviors were collected during the task. Participants and confederates also completed measures of connectedness immediately after the task.  

RESE for positive affect (PA) was negatively associated with expressive suppression of both positive emotions (r = -.28, p = .004) and negative emotions (r = -.30, p = .001). RESE for PA was positively associated with PA (r = .31, p = .001) and negatively associated with NA (r = -.23, p = .015). RESE for PA was not significantly associated with avoidance (r = -.12, p = .226) or approach (r = .13, p = .168) behaviors. RESE for PA was positively associated with post-interaction participant (r = .20, p = .040) and confederate (r = .23, p = .018) connectedness. However, RESE for negative affect did not predict any outcomes during the task (all p > .05).

Results suggest that cultivating self-efficacy beliefs in emotion regulation, particularly for positive emotions, may be beneficial for social functioning processes in adults with anxiety or depression. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of potential processes underpinning social functioning impairments that may serve as modifiable treatment targets. Experimental studies are needed to support that possibility.