What predicts the initiation and outcomes of interpersonal emotion regulation in everyday life?

Abstract

Research examining initiation and outcomes of ER has primarily examined when people regulate their own emotions. In the present study, we investigated what predicts the initiation and outcomes of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). We also examined whether the associations varied by major depressive disorder (MDD), which is characterized by several emotion regulation challenges, including in IER. Adults with and without MDD (N = 215) completed a 14-day EMA protocol, reporting on their emotional experience, recent events, and recent IER interactions. For IER initiation, we examined two features of subjective emotional experiences: participants’ affect (negative affect, positive affect) and emotional awareness (attention to emotion, emotional clarity), and two situational characteristics: event unpleasantness and goal interruption. For IER outcomes, we focused on sharing partners’ characteristics. Analyses utilized multilevel modeling. We focus on reporting within-person findings. Participants were more likely to initiate IER when the situation was more unpleasant and when goals were interrupted. Regarding IER outcomes, the extent to which participants experienced improved feelings about the problem and relational closeness varied depending on who was the sharing partner. Additionally, perceived warmth of sharing partner was associated with better IER outcomes. Initiating IER did not differ by MDD status, whereas associations between perceived warmth and IER outcomes did. Findings elucidate factors relevant to the IER process and serve to provide important insight into the contexts in which individuals might seek others to support their regulation and when the sharing partner were the most helpful in IER.