Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Emotion theorists have argued that the adaptivity of emotion regulation strategies depends on situational context (e.g., Aldao, 2013).Bonanno, Papa, Lalande, Westphal, and Coifman (2004) used a within-subject experimental paradigm to measure flexibility in two expressive regulation strategies: expressive enhancement and expressive suppression.Flexibility predicted two-year changes in distress in a college sample.However, it is unclear how or for whom flexibility predicts changes in distress.In the current study, I attempted to replicate Bonanno and colleagues' (2004) findings and extend them by examining potential mediators and moderators of the effect of flexibility on short-term changes in distress in a different college sample.Participants completed behavioral measures of expressive flexibility (EF) and facial affect sensitivity at baseline.They also filled out self-report measures of distress, context sensitivity, and emotion regulation flexibility at baseline, two weeks, and one month later.EF did not predict onemonth changes in distress (β = -.06,p = .35).However, Discriminative Facility, a measure of context sensitivity, moderated the effect of EF on changes in distress (β = .16,p = .03).When Discriminative Facility was low, EF negatively predicted changes in distress.Additionally, there was evidence for moderated mediation.At low levels of Facial Affect Sensitivity, EF predicted increased use of evaluation coping two weeks later which in turn predicted decreased distress one month later (ab = .008,95% CI: .001,.021).These results suggest that different measures of context sensitivity moderate the iii impact of expressive flexibility on changes in distress in different ways.The pattern of these findings also suggests that being skilled at either expressive flexibility or context sensitivity, but not both, leads to the greatest decreases in distress.iv Dedication To Mom and Dad, for your unwavering support.
Author: Matthew W. Southward
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2618964266