Reappraisal and Suppression Each Moderate the Association Between Stress and Suicidal Ideation: Preliminary Evidence From a Daily Diary Study

Association between stressful life events and sleep quality in Chinese university students: Mediating and moderating roles of emotion regulation

This study investigated whether emotion regulation mediates or modulates the relationship of SLEs with sleep quality and potential sex differences. A total of 1447 Chinese university students completed the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The results indicated that both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression significantly mediated and moderated the negative association between SLEs and sleep quality. Additionally, sex differences were found for the mediating role of cognitive reappraisal and for the modulating roles of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in the relationship between SLEs and sleep quality. Although the present cross-sectional data does not allow us to test any causal relationships, these results help clarify the underlying emotion-regulation process between SLEs and sleep in university students and highlight the importance of considering sex differences in emotion regulation.

Emotional regulation and suicidal ideation-Mediating roles of perceived social support and avoidant coping

Introduction

Recent research has uncovered a wide prevalence variation of suicidal ideation in university students ranging from 9.7% to 58.3%. India has witnessed a 4.5% increase in suicide rates in the year 2021. The interplay between cognitive reappraisal of a stressful situation, suppression of emotional expression, and coping strategies for suicidal ideation of Indian University students is yet to be explored. We aim to determine whether suicidal ideation would differ across different types of family units, and to predict the extent to which perceived social support and avoidant coping could mediate the relation between emotion regulation processes and suicidal ideation.

Methods

Two hundred randomly selected University students (Mean age = 19.9, SD = 1.43) participated. Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson's product-moment correlation, and GLM mediation model were computed.

Results and discussion

Lifetime suicidal ideation significantly differed between those who stay alone and those who live in a nuclear family (p < 0.01), and also those who stay in a joint family (p < 0.05). Cognitive reappraisal predicted a reduction in suicidal ideation mediated by perceived social support (B = -0.06, p < 0.05) and avoidant coping (B = -0.07, p < 0.05). Whereas, expressive suppression predicted induced levels of suicidal ideation through perceived social support (B = 0.05, p < 0.05), and avoidant coping (B = 0.06, p < 0.05) as mediators.

Conclusion

Though our sample size restricts the generalization, our findings implied the importance of regular psychological consultation regarding the efficacy of the said coping processes in dealing with suicidal ideation.

The use of advanced technology and statistical methods to predict and prevent suicide

In the past decade, two themes have emerged across suicide research. First, according to meta-analyses, the ability to predict and prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviours is weaker than would be expected for the size of the field. Second, review and commentary papers propose that technological and statistical methods (such as smartphones, wearables, digital phenotyping and machine learning) might become solutions to this problem. In this Review, we aim to strike a balance between the pessimistic picture presented by these meta-analyses and the optimistic picture presented by review and commentary papers about the promise of advanced technological and statistical methods to improve the ability to understand, predict and prevent suicide. We divide our discussion into two broad categories. First, we discuss the research aimed at assessment, with the goal of better understanding or more accurately predicting suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Second, we discuss the literature that focuses on prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Ecological momentary assessment, wearables and other technological and statistical advances hold great promise for predicting and preventing suicide, but there is much yet to do.

Characterizing emotion profiles in non‐clinical population: A cluster analytical study

Emotion processing and beliefs about pleasure can influence the development and severity of depressive symptoms. This cluster analysis study aimed to profile a large sample of college students using pleasure experience, emotion expression and regulation as well as beliefs about pleasure. We also aimed to validate the resultant clusters in terms of depressive symptoms. A set of checklists capturing beliefs about pleasure and the three facets of emotion processing was administered to 1028 college students. A two-stage cluster analysis was used to analyze the profile of these emotional aspects in these college students. Our results showed that a three-cluster solution best fit the data. Cluster 1 (n = 536) was characterized by moderate levels of beliefs about pleasure, pleasure experience, emotion expression, and regulation; Cluster 2 (n = 402) was characterized by generally high levels of beliefs about pleasure, pleasure experience, emotion expression, and regulation; Cluster 3 (n = 90) was characterized by relatively low levels of beliefs about pleasure, pleasure experience, emotion expression, and regulation. The three clusters differed significantly in the severity of depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest the existence of three emotional subtypes, which may be useful in early detection of youth at risk of developing depression.

The relations between emotion regulation, depression and anxiety among medical staff during the late stage of COVID-19 pandemic: a network analysis

Existing research proposed that moving from a disorder-level analysis to a symptom-level analysis may provide a more fine-grained understanding of psychopathology. This study aimed to explore the relations between two dimensions (i.e., cognitive reappraisal, CR; expressive suppression, ES) of emotion regulation and individual symptoms of depression and anxiety among medical staff during the late stage of COVID-19 pandemic. We examined depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and emotion regulation among 420 medical staff during the late stage of COVID-19 pandemic via network analysis. Two networks (i.e. emotion regulation-depression network and emotion regulation-anxiety network) were constructed in the present study. Bridge centrality index was calculated for each variable within the two networks. Among the present sample, the prevalences of depression and anxiety are 39.5% and 26.0%. CR and ES showed distinct connections to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Results of bridge centrality showed that in both networks, CR had a negative bridge expected influence value while ES had a positive bridge expected influence value. The results revealed the specific role of CR and ES in relation to depression and anxiety at a symptom level. Implications for clinical preventions and interventions are discussed.

Relationship Between Emotion Regulation and Suicide Ideation and Attempt in Adults and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

INTRODUCTION

Suicide is one of the main causes of death in adults and adolescents, so research focused on identifying risk factors for suicidal behavior is needed. In recent years, emotion regulation, mainly the presence of difficulties regulating one's own negative emotions, has been associated with negative mental health outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the available evidence on the association between emotion regulation and suicide (ideation and attempt) in both adults and adolescents.

METHOD

A systematic search of scientific articles published in English and Spanish was carried out through the databases PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library.

RESULTS

We identified 76 eligible studies, of which 70 reported that people with difficulties in emotion regulation reported higher levels of suicide ideation and more suicide attempts. The results were consistent in adolescents and adults, in clinical and general population samples, and when studies assessed both emotion regulation processes and strategies. However, few studies were longitudinal and most of them were with women.

CONCLUSIONS

We discuss the theoretical implications of the results, suggesting that actual psychological models might benefit from considering individual differences in ER in understanding why people engage in suicide behavior. Clinical implications are also discussed.HIGHLIGHTSDifficulties regulating one's emotions is associated with suicide behavior (SI and SA).Consistent results at all the ages and in the clinical and general population.Individual differences in ER could help researchers to understand suicide.

Deconstructing emotion regulation in schizophrenia: the nature and consequences of abnormalities at the identification stage

Existing evidence suggests that emotion regulation is abnormal in schizophrenia and associated with undesirable clinical outcomes. However, this literature is based predominantly on trait self-report and does not indicate which stages of emotion regulation (identification, selection, implementation) are impaired. The current study focused on determining the nature of abnormalities at the identification stage using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Participants included clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ; n = 48) and healthy controls (CN; n = 52) who completed 6 days of EMA. The EMA surveys assessed emotional experience, emotion regulation, and symptoms. Results indicated that SZ identified the need to regulate at a higher rate than CN. Specifically, SZ displayed an inefficient threshold for identifying the need to regulate, such that they regulated too much when negative affect was low and too little when negative affect was high. Emotion regulation effort exertion was also inefficient, such that effort was too high at low levels of negative affect and too low at high levels of negative affect in SZ. These identification stage abnormalities also demonstrated differential associations with positive and negative symptoms. Findings suggest that identification stage abnormalities may create a bottleneck that feeds forward and impacts subsequent stages of emotion regulation in SZ that are critically related to symptoms. Targeting the psychological processes underlying these identification stage abnormalities might offer a novel means of treating positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Relationship between emotion regulation strategies and total conviction in promoting behavior change

Research conducted in the recent past have proposed total conviction as a factor associated with cognitive reappraisal that may produce changes in emotion and behavior. However, the factors that influence total conviction are not yet clearly identified. In this study, we focused on daily emotion regulation strategies and examined the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and total conviction. A total of 42 undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. They measured their tendency toward daily emotion regulation strategies and then engaged in the cold pressor task (CPT) which is a distress tolerance task. Participants were then presented with information that encouraged them to engage in the task while enduring distress, creating a context for cognitive reappraisal of the task. Thereafter, they engaged in a second CPT. Finally, the degree of total conviction to the information that prompted reappraisal was measured. The results showed that total conviction in the experimental situation predicted behavior change. We found that the tendency to use routine cognitive reappraisal was not associated with total conviction, while the tendency to use expressive suppression would have a negative effect on total conviction. Furthermore, the expressive suppression tendency was found to moderate the relationship between total conviction and behavior change. These results indicate that the occurrence of total conviction in cognitive reappraisal leads to behavior change, though the tendency toward daily cognitive reappraisal is not related to the occurrence of total conviction in the experimental setting. The results also suggest that daily expressive suppression inhibits total conviction, particularly in situations where cognitive reappraisal is required.

Various Types of Negative Life Events Among Youth Predict Suicidal Ideation: A Cross-Sectional Study Based on Gender Perspective

We sought to investigate potential gender differences in various types of negative life events and suicidal ideation among Chinese high school and university students, as well as to analyze the interrelations between different types of negative life events and suicidal ideation among these young students. Participants were 2,018 high school and university students from northwestern China, who completed a demographics questionnaire and self-report measures of negative life events and suicidal ideation. Significant gender differences emerged in the types of negative life events reported and in students’ degree of suicidal ideation. Within each gender group, different types of negative life events were predictive of the intensity of suicidal ideation. The present study provides evidence of the role of negative life events in predicting adolescents’ and young adults’ suicidal ideation regardless of their gender. However, gender differences did emerge in the specific type of negative life events that were predictive of suicidal ideation. For males, greater reports of punishment and adaptation had a significant positive impact on the intensity of their suicidal ideation. For females, greater reports of academic stress, personal loss, interpersonal relationships, and adaptation were all significantly and positively predictive of their suicidal ideation. Parents’ marital status emerged as a significant indicator of suicidal ideation across genders, while age was significant negative predictor of suicidal ideation among females only.

Mobile phone addiction is associated with impaired cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression of negative emotion

Previous studies have demonstrated people characterized by mobile phone addiction (MPA) are more prone to emotion regulation difficulties. However, no study has tested the effectiveness of their emotion regulation strategies in experimental conditions. In the present study, by instructing the MPA and control groups to regulate negative emotion through cognitive reappraisal (CR) or expressive suppression (ES), we compared their emotional states in the emotional visual search task after watching a negative emotion evoked video. A multi-factor mixed design of 2(group: MPA/control)×2(emotion regulation strategy: CR/ES)×3(image type: positive expression/negative expression/neutral expression) was conducted. We found the MPA group recognized the negative expression faster than control group after both emotion regulation strategies, indicating ES and CR were both impaired for MPA. The implications of these results were further discussed.

Social Media Exposure, Psychological Distress, Emotion Regulation, and Depression During the COVID-19 Outbreak in Community Samples in China

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a global emergency, affecting millions of individuals both physically and psychologically. The present research investigated the associations between social media exposure and depression during the COVID-19 outbreak by examining the mediating role of psychological distress and the moderating role of emotion regulation among members of the general public in China. Participants (N = 485) completed a set of questionnaires online, including demographic information, self-rated physical health, and social media exposure to topics related to COVID-19. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were utilized to measure psychological distress about COVID-19, depression, and emotion regulation strategies, respectively. Results found that older age and greater levels of social media exposure were associated with more psychological distress about the virus (r = 0.14, p = 0.003; r = 0.22, p < 0.001). Results of the moderated mediation model suggest that psychological distress mediated the relationship between social media exposure and depression (β = 0.10; Boot 95% CI = 0.07, 0.15). Furthermore, expressive suppression moderated the relationship between psychological distress and depression (β = 0.10, p = 0.017). The findings are discussed in terms of the need for mental health assistance for individuals at high risk of depression, including the elderly and individuals who reported greater psychological distress and those who showed preference usage of suppression, during the COVID-19 crisis.