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Adult Depression

(PS3-12) Effects of Previous Emotional State on Emotion Regulation Choice: Insights from an Ecological Momentary Assessment

Friday, November 15, 2024
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text:

INTRODUCTION

Previous research suggests emotions may be resistant to change over time, termed as emotional inertia (Kuppens et al., 2010). Moment-to-moment changes in emotional state can be due to many reasons, one of which is emotion regulation. People may choose from various emotion regulation strategies in different contexts. The frequency with which certain emotion regulation strategies are employed may depend on the emotion-to-be-regulated (Southward et al., 2019). The current study investigated the effects of emotional inertia on moment-to-moment changes in emotion regulation.  

ANALYSES

An ecological momentary assessment of emotions in daily life was conducted over 21 days, with 158 participants ranging from 18 to 72 in age (M = 35.97, SD = 12.45). For this investigation, 3 participants were excluded due to missing data, resulting in a final sample of 155. A first-order autoregressive model was used to predict the current emotional state and regulation strategy using the previous moment’s emotional state and regulation strategy. Further moderation analyses were conducted to examine the effect of the previous moment’s emotional distress (DASS) on the relationship between previous and current emotion regulation strategies. 

RESULTS

The autoregressive analyses showed that previous emotional distress significantly predicted current emotional distress (t = 23.70, p < .001). The moderation analyses revealed that emotional distress in the previous moment significantly moderated the relationship between previous and current moment of certain emotion regulation strategies employed, including soothing (t = -2.41, p < .05), planning (t = -2.44, p < .05), problem-solving (t = -2.01, p < .05), distraction (t = -2.19, p < .05), and worrying (t = 3.52, p < .001). The results infer that emotional distress strengthens the use of the same maladaptive emotion regulation strategy and weakens the use of the same adaptive emotion regulation strategy from moment to moment.