The authors of this article declare no conflict of interest.
There is increasing research interest in the relationships between different emotion regulation strategies and symptoms or other emotional traits. This study considers these types of strategies as personal dispositions in relation to other factors, in an effort to identify different cognitive emotion regulation profiles and analyze their predictive capacity for positive and negative affect, emotional traits (anxiety and anger), and depressive symptomatology. Participants were 350 individuals (50% men) with a mean age of 35.69 (
Existe un creciente interés en la investigación de las relaciones entre diferentes estrategias de regulación de la emoción y sus síntomas u otros rasgos emocionales. Este estudio considera estos tipos de estrategias como disposiciones personales en relación con otros factores, en un esfuerzo por identificar diferentes perfiles de regulación de la emoción cognitiva y analizar su capacidad para predecir el impacto positivo y negativo, rasgos emocionales (ansiedad e ira) y sintomatología depresiva. Los participantes fueron 350 individuos (50% hombres) con una edad media de 35.69 (
In general, emotional responses facilitate an individual’s functional adaptation to stressful or adverse circumstances. However, some people experience emotional difficulties that affect the efficacy of this regulation mechanism (
The growing number of studies published on emotional regulation indicates the extent of current interest in this phenomenon (
Emotional regulation encompasses a set of competences that allow the person to supervise, appraise, and modify the processes involved in the genesis of emotion and modulate its manifestation (
Since
Studies that address the association between emotional regulation strategies and a range of psychopathologies have also done so within the context of cognitive strategies (
The results of the research focusing on cognitive emotion regulation strategies, taken together, reveal that emotional disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression) and emotional traits (e.g., trait anxiety, proneness to depression, negative affect, and trait anger) are related to types of strategies in unequal fashion. That is, strategies referred to as less adaptive (or maladaptive), including rumination and catastrophizing, are directly related to symptoms of depression and anxiety or to emotional traits; on the other hand, the so-called adaptive strategies, such as positive reappraisal or putting into perspective, are inversely related to such symptoms or traits. Findings like this have been obtained in a wide range of age groups, from pre-adolescents (age 9 to 12) to adults, and cultures (e.g.,
The majority of these studies focus on the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and symptoms or other emotional traits, but such strategies have also been studied as the expression of identifiable dispositions in individuals in relation to other factors (
In the present study, taking the individual as the unit of measurement, as a person with idiosyncratic characteristics that distinguish him or her from others, we explore the possible existence of specific profiles, or participant groups defined by their cognitive coping profiles and their relationship with emotional symptoms. More specifically, the aim of this study is to identify different profiles of cognitive emotion regulation and analyze their predictive capacity in relation to positive and negative affect, different emotional traits (anxiety and anger), and depressive symptomatology.
This objective founds the following working hypotheses:
Participants in this study were 350 people with a mean age of 35.6 years (
Selection of the sample was by means of a personal e-mail sent to students on various courses at a Spanish university. In this e-mail, potential participants were told that participation was voluntary and anonymous, and consisted in filling out a battery of questionnaires that could be found on an Internet website accessed by means of a username and a password. The final sample comprised equal numbers of men and women, matched by age and socio-economic status.
The statistical analyses employed were: 1)
By means of the
As shown in
On the other hand, 35% of the participants were categorized in Profile 1, and no statistically significant differences were found between the two clusters by gender, ?2(1) = 0.001,
Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in eight of the nine first-order dimensions of the CERQ-S (the exception being self-blame): participants in Profile 1 scored significantly higher in the strategies rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others, with effect sizes ranging from small to moderate. On the other hand, those in Profile 2 obtained higher mean scores in the use of the five adaptive strategies of the CERQ-S – acceptance, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective – with effect sizes ranging between large and very large.
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Next, we carried out a discriminant analysis, including as predictors the nine dimensions of the CERQ-S and as criterion variable the groups obtained previously by means of the cluster analysis (
Finally, with the aim of defining the two profiles in those variables related to trait anxiety and anger, depressive symptoms, and positive and negative affect, we analyzed the differences of means between the two groups obtained in the cluster analysis, taking as dependent variables the scores on: a) trait anger (STAXI-T), b) trait anxiety (STAI-T), c) depressive symptoms (BDI), and d) positive affect (PANAS-PA) and negative affect (PANAS-NA).
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Emotion regulation, a concept involving processes of a biological, social, behavioural, and cognitive nature, is itself an automatic or controlled, conscious or unconscious process in individuals that influences their own emotions, those of others, or both (
According to the hypotheses proposed, three main results emerge from our study. First, we identified two cognitive emotion regulation styles that differ as regards frequency of use of the regulation strategies considered as adaptive (acceptance, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective), and not by the frequency of use of the less adaptive strategies. Thus, those in the sample can be categorized according to their use of one set or the other of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. People situated in the “protector” profile (Profile 2) more frequently use strategies considered as adaptive, whilst such strategies are less likely to be used by those categorized in the “vulnerable” coping style group (Profile 1).
These findings are in line with those suggesting a relationship between depressive symptoms and more frequent use of strategies such as rumination or suppression of emotion, as opposed to those that require more cognitive resources, such as positive reappraisal (
Second, of all the cognitive emotion regulation strategies studied, positive refocusing and, above all, positive reappraisal are those that best discriminate between Profiles 1 and 2 in this study. Identification of these profiles reveals that the criterion for distinguishing the two types of individual is based on the positive (adaptive) pole of cognitive emotion regulation. Thus, whilst the frequent use of less adaptive strategies does not permit the ascription of a person to one regulation profile or the other, the frequent use of so-called adaptive strategies is a sufficient condition for categorizing an individual in the “protector” profile. This result highlights the importance of promoting the use of adaptive strategies as a protective factor in the face of unpleasant situations or negative emotions such as sadness, fear or anger, as well as the importance of promoting and working on strategies more related to a healthy profile.
The existence of different regulation profiles may derive from the fact that certain biases in information processing become chronic. Research focusing on individual differences in processes involving attention and memory has shown that these can affect the selection of strategies and the true effectiveness of emotional control in the context of affective disorders (
The level of automaticity of emotion regulation strategies, in addition to making it more difficult to separate processes of generation of emotions from those of regulation, highlights the importance of the degree of inflexibility of attentional and perceptual biases or unconscious appraisal – all sources of modulation of the various forms (more or less rigid) of response to potentially stressful situations. For example, in the types of scenario considered, a high internal, stable, and global attributional style, together with a high external, unstable, and specific attributional style for positive events constitute a more or less automatized form of interpreting situations that can result in depression (
Thirdly and finally, the results of the present study suggest that the use or non-use of these forms of cognitive emotion regulation appears to be directly related to presenting higher or lower levels of depressive symptomatology and higher or lower scores on trait anxiety, and this could be taken into account on intervening in anxiety- or depression-based disorders. These results coincide, indeed, and from the perspective of the individual’s disposition, with those from other studies on depression and the use of emotion regulation strategies (
The differentiating role of the positive reappraisal strategy highlights the importance given to it in previous studies focusing on its nature and its relation to the experience of certain emotions. In this regard, research has confirmed the beneficial role of positive reappraisal given its association with positive affect, good interpersonal functioning, and higher levels of well-being (
To summarize, the results of the present study show that there are idiosyncratic aspects suggesting the existence of different cognitive emotion regulation styles. The two profiles identified are distinguished by higher frequency of so-called adaptive strategies (Profile 2) and lower frequency of use of such strategies (Profile 1). The category of adaptive strategies would include acceptance, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective and, within this group, positive reappraisal is the strategy that best permits quantification of the differences. Membership of the “protector” group – less prone to presenting adverse psychological symptoms – would be determined by better disposition in stressful situations to reappraise the emotional valence of the situation, that is, to change the affective valence from negative to positive. In contrast, the “vulnerable” profile could be hindering the person’s optimal functioning by drastically reducing the range of strategies available in response to potentially stressful and unpleasant situations. In turn, it is essential to take into account an individual’s idiosyncrasies and personal cognitive style of regulating his or her emotions, in both prevention and intervention programmes.
A limitation of this study is the methodology, which is based on the cluster analysis, so the results are tentative. We should stress, in concluding, the need for longitudinal research that would permit the study not only of how cognitive emotion regulation strategies work in different contexts (community, educational, clinical, etc.), but also of the extent to which the profiles identified are stable or subject to change.
In terms of clinical implications, the differentiation of these two profiles of cognitive emotional regulation may be relevant for the study of the etiological factors of affective disorders and for their treatment. The results of this study suggest the convenience of including the coping styles most used by the patient in evaluation protocols. Also, it can be used as a tool in health promotion and prevention programs. In the first case, through the learning and implementation of adaptive regulation strategies; in the second case, it allows for the detection of people at risk, facilitating their monitoring and early intervention. Additionally, emotional regulation is presented as a key transdiagnostic factor that is common to different psychopathological syndromes (
Future research related to the profiles of cognitive emotion regulation could include analysis of potential moderating and mediation factors – e.g., attachment styles (
Cite this article as: Lasa-Aristu, A., Delgado-Egido, B., Holgado-Tello, F. P., Amor, P. J., & Domínguez-Sánchez, F. J. (2019). Profiles of cognitive emotion regulation and their association with emotional traits.