Experimental manipulation of emotion regulation self-efficacy: Effects on emotion regulation ability, perceived effort in the service of regulation, and affective reactivity

Regulatory emotional self-efficacy and self-compassion mediate anxiety, depression, body image distress and subjective well-being in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: A cross-sectional study

AIMS

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and self-compassion in the relationship among anxiety, depression, body image distress and subjective well-being among women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

METHODS

The study recruited 510 women with polycystic ovary syndrome from a tertiary hospital affiliated with a university in Hunan Province, China. The study employed several tools to collect data, including the Generalized Anxiety Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the Body Image States Scale, the Self-Compassion Scale, the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale and the Index of Well-being questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive analysis, spearman correlation analysis, ordinary least squares regression and bootstrapping.

RESULTS

The study's findings indicate that regulatory emotional self-efficacy and self-compassion both act as mediators in the connection between anxiety, depression, body image distress and subjective well-being among women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

CONCLUSION

The study emphasizes the significance of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and self-compassion in promoting well-being among women with polycystic ovary syndrome. It also implies that interventions targeted at enhancing these factors could potentially enhance the subjective well-being of women affected by PCOS.

IMPACT

Our study's primary contribution is to underscore the crucial mediating roles of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and self-compassion in the relationship among anxiety, depression, body image distress and subjective well-being. Our study indicates that clinical practitioners should prioritize improving the regulatory emotional self-efficacy and self-compassion of women with polycystic ovary syndrome, reducing their anxiety, depression and body image distress and improving their subjective well-being.

REPORTING METHOD

This study was reported according to the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR).

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution outside of participation in the actual study for purposes of data collection.

Invalidating environment and meaning in life: The Chain Mediating Effects of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and basic psychological needs satisfaction

BACKGROUND

Although people strive for meaning in life, life is full of experiences that challenge meaning. According to Bowen's family systems theory, the family is both a relational and an emotional system in which family members influence and are influenced by each other. Invalidating environment, reflecting a deficient family emotional setting, may be a key influencing factor in diminishing meaning in life. Existing studies have not directly explored the effects of the invalidating environment on meaning in life and its underlying mechanism.

OBJECTIVE

Guided by Bowen's family systems theory, this study aims to explore the relationship between invalidating environment and meaning in life, as well as the mediating effects of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs.

METHODS

A sample of 555 university students (62.5 % female, 37.5 % male; Mage =19.13 years old, SD = 1.72) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, invalidating environment, meaning in life, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and basic psychological needs satisfaction.

RESULTS

Results revealed that: (a) invalidating environment negatively predicts meaning in life; (b) regulatory emotional self-efficacy and basic psychological needs satisfaction serve as both independent and chain mediators between invalidating environment and meaning in life.

CONCLUSION

Invalidating environment affects meaning in life through regulatory emotional self-efficacy and basic psychological needs satisfaction. This finding has significant theoretical implications and provides a feasible pathway to improve children's meaning in life at both the parent and child levels.

Harnessing the placebo effect to enhance emotion regulation effectiveness and choice

The placebo effect demonstrates how positive expectancies shape the effectiveness of various treatments. Across studies, placebo treatments are interventions (creams, pills, etc.) that are presented to individuals as, and are learned to be, beneficial for them. This study tested whether placebo-induced expectancies can be harnessed to improve individuals' internal emotion regulation attempts. Participants implemented two types of distraction, an emotion regulation strategy involving attentional disengagement, to attenuate fear of pain. In a typical conditioning paradigm, the placebo-distraction was introduced as an effective strategy (verbal suggestion) and was surreptitiously paired with reduced pain (conditioning), whereas the control-distraction was introduced as noneffective and was surreptitiously paired with increased pain. As predicted, we found that during a later test phase, where pain intensity was identical, the placebo-distraction resulted in reduced self-reported fear of pain, relative to the control-distraction. Moreover, we utilized a robust behavioral choice measure, demonstrating increased preferences for the placebo-distraction. We additionally tested whether these effects generalize to a different emotional context of fear of unpleasant pictures. In that context, the placebo-distraction was as effective as the control-distraction, but was substantially preferred. This study demonstrates that the placebo effect can be expanded to include individuals' internal attempts to influence their conditions.

Regulatory emotional self-efficacy and psychological distress among medical students: multiple mediating roles of interpersonal adaptation and self-acceptance

BACKGROUND

Psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) is more common among medical students than in the general population, and is an important cause of insomnia, internet addiction, substance abuse, decreased academic performance and increased suicidality in medical students.

METHODS

To examine the mechanism by which regulatory emotional self-efficacy affects medical students' psychological distress, a questionnaire of 539 medical students using an interpersonal adaptability scale, regulatory emotional self-efficacy scale, self-acceptance scale and depression-anxiety-stress scale was conducted.

RESULTS

① Regulatory emotional self-efficacy, interpersonal adaptability and self-acceptance are positively correlated, but they are negatively correlated with psychological distress. ② The mediation model shows that interpersonal adaptation and self-acceptance are the mediation variables of the effect of regulatory emotional self-efficacy on psychological distress, and the total mediation effect value is -0.37, accounting for 86.05% of the total effect (-0.43). Specifically, the effect involves three paths: first, regulatory emotional self-efficacy indirectly affects psychological distress through interpersonal adaptation (effect value-0.24); second, regulatory emotional self-efficacy indirectly affects psychological distress through interpersonal adaptation and self-acceptance (effect value-0.08); and third, regulatory emotional self-efficacy indirectly affects psychological distress through self-acceptance (effect value -0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Interpersonal adaptation and self-acceptance have a significant mediating effect between regulatory emotional self-efficacy and psychological distress, and the chain mediating effect of interpersonal adaptation and self-acceptance is also significant.

Association between gambling disorder and emotion (dys)regulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the role of emotion (dys)regulation in gambling disorder (GD). PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed were systematically searched for articles published until November 3, 2020. Forty-nine studies were considered for the systematic review; of these, 38 comprising 5242 participants met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. Associations were found between GD and specific emotion regulation (ER) deficits, namely (1) nonacceptance of negative emotional states, (2) difficulties in maintaining goal-directed behaviors when faced with intense emotional contexts, (3) lack of clarity about emotional states (poor emotional awareness), (4) low impulse control in reaction to negative emotional states, and (5) difficulties in accessing adaptive ER strategies. We furthermore found that GD is associated with a tendency for emotional suppression, which is known as a maladaptive ER strategy and linked with reduced mindfulness abilities. Additional moderator analyses were conducted regarding age, gender, type of instrument used to measure GD, clinical status of the samples, and quality of the studies. Overall, the data demonstrated consistent and significant associations between GD and ER. This systematic review and meta-analysis mostly supports the conceptualization of GD as an addictive disorder characterized by ER deficits and stresses the need to develop interventions in ER deficits that are tailored to the specificities of GD.

Expanding our understanding of the relationship between nonsuicidal self-injury and suicide attempts: The roles of emotion regulation self-efficacy and the acquired capability for suicide

OBJECTIVE

Although past literature has emphasized the role of acquired capability in the relationship between nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide attempts, support for the indirect relationship of NSSI to suicide attempts through acquired capability is limited. Thus, research examining other factors that may underlie this relationship is needed. Across two studies, this research examined the indirect relationships of NSSI frequency to suicide attempts through both acquired capability and emotion regulation self-efficacy (ERSE).

METHOD

Two large samples of adults (one nationwide community sample and one clinical sample of patients with substance use disorders) completed questionnaires and/or interviews.

RESULTS

Results revealed significant indirect relationships of NSSI frequency to lifetime suicide attempts through ERSE, but not acquired capability, within both samples.

CONCLUSIONS

Results highlight the relevance of ERSE to both suicide attempts and the NSSI-suicide attempt relationship, and suggest the potential utility of interventions aimed at increasing ERSE among individuals with repeated NSSI.

The Influence of Perceived Organizational Support on Police Job Burnout: A Moderated Mediation Model

Objective

Based on the theory of perceived organizational support (POS), conservation of resource (COR) and job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study establishes a moderated mediation model to test the role of job satisfaction in mediating the relationship between POS and job burnout, as well as the role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RES) in moderating the above mediating process.

Methods

A total of 784 police officers were surveyed with the POS Scale, the Job Burnout Questionnaire, the RES Scale, and the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire.

Results

(1) After controlling for gender, seniority, age, police classification, education, and marital status, regression analysis showed a significant negative correlation between POS and burnout (r = −0.42, p < 0.01), and the former had a significant negative predictive effect on job burnout (β = −0.42, p < 0.001). (2) The mediating effect test shows that job satisfaction plays a partial role in mediating the relationship between POS and job burnout. (3) Through the analysis of the moderated mediation model test, RES moderates the first half of the path of “POS → job satisfaction → job burnout.”

Conclusion

POS not only directly affects police job burnout but also indirectly affects police job burnout through job satisfaction. RES enhances the influence of organizational support on job satisfaction. This study indicates the combined effect of POS, job satisfaction, and RES on job burnout and has certain guiding significance for alleviating police job burnout.

The Interactive Effect of Happiness Emotion Goals and Emotion Regulation Self-Efficacy on Anxiety and Depression

Overvaluation of happiness might be a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. However, emotion regulation self-efficacy may influence the association between happiness emotion goals and psychopathology. The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, we sought to replicate prior findings showing that happiness emotion goals and depressive symptoms are positively related, but only among those with lower emotion regulation self-efficacy. Second, we examined whether the noted interaction effect would relate to generalized anxiety symptoms in a sample of general population adults (N = 504). Results from regression analyses were consistent with our predictions suggesting that individuals with unrealistic happiness emotion goals and low emotion regulation self-efficacy may be particularly prone to experiencing negative emotional states and psychological distress. Further, study findings suggest the possibility that the noted interaction has transdiagnostic value and it may be important to target emotion regulation self-efficacy in the service of alleviating internalizing psychopathology.