Acceptance beliefs about negative emotions and psychological well-being: The mediating role of emotion regulation

Background

How people regulate their emotions has strong implications for psychological well-being. More recently, researchers have examined people's beliefs about emotions and how they may be associated with psychological well-being. For instance, the belief that negative emotions are bad was associated with lower psychological well-being. However, few studies have examined whether the belief that negative emotions should be accepted is associated with psychological well-being. The mechanisms through which acceptance beliefs are associated with well-being are also less understood. As such, the current study examines whether acceptance beliefs about negative emotions are associated with emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression), and in turn, psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, life satisfaction) over time.

Methods

A diverse sample of 283 college students completed self-report surveys at baseline (T1) and 3-month follow-up (T2).

Results

Controlling for demographic factors, T1 depressive and anxiety symptoms, and T1 cognitive reappraisal, T1 acceptance beliefs were associated with increased use of T2 cognitive reappraisal, and in turn, lower T2 depressive and anxiety symptoms. Emotion suppression did not mediate the associations between acceptance beliefs and psychological well-being over time.

Discussion

Our findings provide preliminary evidence that acceptance beliefs about negative emotions are associated with psychological well-being over time via cognitive reappraisal, but not through emotion suppression. These findings shed light on the mechanisms through which emotion beliefs may be associated with psychological well-being.