Abstract
Positive emotion regulation (ER) strategies may contribute to the development and maintenance of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression; nonetheless, the underlying and transdiagnostic mechanisms are still unknown. To examine: 1) the mediating role of positive ER strategies in the relationship between ER deficits and experiential avoidance in GAD and depression symptoms; 2) differences in positive ER strategies among participants with elevated symptoms of GAD, depression, depression comorbid with GAD, and a nonclinical sample. 532 Tehran University students completed questionnaires assessing experiential avoidance, deficits in ER, positive ER strategies (dampening, positive rumination), and GAD and depression symptoms. Differences were assessed in four groups: GAD, depression, depression comorbid with GAD, and nonclinical. Data were analysed with path analysis and MANCOVA. Dampening and positive rumination mediated the relationship between deficits in ER and experiential avoidance in participants with depression and GAD symptoms. As for the between groups comparisons, the comorbid group obtained the highest scores on dampening and the nonclinical group the lowest. By contrast, nonclinical participants had the highest scores on positive rumination, whereas the comorbid group had the lowest. Positive ER strategies might be transdiagnostic variables. Dampening was more associated with psychopathology than positive rumination, suggesting that this strategy could be more clearly considered a transdiagnostic factor. Future studies with clinical samples must support this suggestion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Data are available upon request from the authors.
Change history
24 March 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04423-5
References
Abasi, E., Fti, L., Molodi, R., & Zarabi, H. (2013). Psychometric properties of Persian version of acceptance and action questionnaire-II. Journal of Psychological Models and Methods, 3(10), 65–80.
Abasi, I., Feldman, G., Farazmand, S., Pourshahbaz, A., & Sarichloo, M. E. (2018). A psychometric evaluation of Iranian version of the responses to positive affect (RPA) questionnaire. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 12(4), e11923. https://doi.org/10.5812/ijpbs.11923.
Arbuckle, J. L. (2014). Amos 23.0 User's Guide. Chicago: IBM SPSS.
Asgari, P., Pasha, G. R., & Aminiyan, M. (2009). Relationship between emotion regulation, mental stresses and body image with eating disorders of women. Applied Psychology, 4(5), 65–78.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Carbin, M. G. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck depression inventory: Twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 8(1), 77–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7358(88)90050-5.
Bonanno, G. A., & Burton, C. L. (2013). Regulatory flexibility: An individual differences perspective on coping and emotion regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(6), 591–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613504116.
Bonanno, G. A., Pat-Horenczyk, R., & Noll, J. (2011). Coping flexibility and trauma: The perceived ability to cope with trauma (PACT) scale. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(2), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020921.
Bond, F. W., Hayes, S. C., Baer, R. A., Carpenter, K. M., Guenole, N., Orcutt, H. K., Waltz, T., & Zettle, R. D. (2011). Preliminary psychometric properties of the acceptance and action questionnaire–II: A revised measure of psychological inflexibility and experiential avoidance. Behavior Therapy, 42(4), 676–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.03.007.
Carl, J. R., Soskin, D. P., Kerns, C., & Barlow, D. H. (2013). Positive emotion regulation in emotional disorders: A theoretical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(3), 343–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2013.01.003.
Carl, J. R., Gallagher, M. W., & Barlow, D. H. (2018). Development and preliminary evaluation of a positive emotion regulation augmentation module for anxiety and depression. Behavior Therapy, 49(6), 939–950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2017.11.008.
Chapman, A. L. (2019). Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation. Development and Psychopathology, 31(3), 1143–1156. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000658.
Chawla, N., & Ostafin, B. (2007). Experiential avoidance as a functional dimensional approach to psychopathology: An empirical review. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 63(9), 871–890. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20400.
Cludius, B., Mennin, D., & Ehring, T. (2020). Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic process. Emotion, 20(1), 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000646.
Dixon, M. L., Moodie, C. A., Goldin, P. R., Farb, N., Heimberg, R. G., & Gross, J. J. (2020). Emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder: Reappraisal and acceptance of negative self-beliefs. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 5(1), 119–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.07.009.
Dodd, A., Lockwood, E., Mansell, W., & Palmier-Claus, J. (2019). Emotion regulation strategies in bipolar disorder: A systematic and critical review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 246, 262–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.026.
Dryman, M. T., & Heimberg, R. G. (2018). Emotion regulation in social anxiety and depression: A systematic review of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal. Clinical Psychology Review, 65, 17–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2018.07.004.
du Pont, A., Welker, K., Gilbert, K. E., & Gruber, J. (2016). The emerging field of positive emotion dysregulation. In K. D. Vohs & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory and applications (3rd ed., pp. 364–379). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Eisner, L. R., Johnson, S. L., & Carver, C. S. (2009). Positive affect regulation in anxiety disorders. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23(5), 645–649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.02.001.
Feldman, G. C., Joormann, J., & Johnson, S. L. (2008). Responses to positive affect: A self-report measure of rumination and dampening. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32(4), 507–525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9083-0.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition & Emotion, 19(3), 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930441000238.
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2016). IBM SPSS statistics 23 step by step: A simple guide and reference. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315545899.
Geschwind, N., Martinmäki, S., & Garland, E. L. (2019). Facilitation of positive emotions through mindfulness-based therapy. In J. Gruber (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of positive emotion and psychopathology (pp. 1110–1124). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ghassemzadeh, H., Mojtabai, R., Karamghadiri, N., & Ebrahimkhani, N. (2005). Psychometric properties of a Persian-language version of the Beck depression inventory-second edition: BDI-II-PERSIAN. Depression and Anxiety, 21(4), 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20070.
Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41–54. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOBA.0000007455.08539.94.
Gruber, J. (2019). The Oxford handbook of positive emotion and psychopathology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190653200.001.0001.
Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory, and the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapies. Behavior Therapy, 35(4), 639–665. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(04)80013-3.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., Wilson, K. G., Bissett, R. T., Pistorello, J., Toarmino, D., Polusny, M. A., Dykstra, T. A., Batten, S. V., Bergan, J., Stewart, S. H., Zvolensky, M. J., Eifert, G. H., Bond, F. W., Forsyth, J. P., Karekla, M., & McCurry, S. M. (2004). Measuring experiential avoidance: A preliminary test of a working model. The Psychological Record, 54(4), 553–578. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395492.
Johnson, J., & Wood, A. M. (2017). Integrating positive and clinical psychology: Viewing human functioning as continua from positive to negative can benefit clinical assessment, interventions and understandings of resilience. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 41(3), 335–349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9728-y.
Kirk, A., Meyer, J. M., Whisman, M. A., Deacon, B. J., & Arch, J. J. (2019). Safety behaviors, experiential avoidance, and anxiety: A path analysis approach. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 64, 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2019.03.002.
Meyers, L. S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2016). Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Moskowitz, J. T., Epel, E. S., & Acree, M. (2008). Positive affect uniquely predicts lower risk of mortality in people with diabetes. Health Psychology, 27(1S), S73–S82. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.27.1.S73.
Nelis, S., Holmes, E. A., & Raes, F. (2015). Response styles to positive affect and depression: Concurrent and prospective associations in a community sample. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 39(4), 480–491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9671-y.
O’Toole, M. S., Renna, M. E., Mennin, D. S., & Fresco, D. M. (2019). Changes in decentering and reappraisal temporally precede symptom reduction during emotion regulation therapy for generalized anxiety disorder with and without co-occurring depression. Behavior Therapy, 50(6), 1042–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2018.12.005.
Olofsson, M. E., Boersma, K., Engh, J., & Wurm, M. (2014). A psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version of the responses to positive affect questionnaire. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 68(8), 588–593. https://doi.org/10.3109/08039488.2014.898792.
Omani-Samani, R., Maroufizadeh, S., Ghaheri, A., & Navid, B. (2018). Generalized anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in people with infertility: A reliability and validity study. Middle East Fertility Society Journal, 23(4), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mefs.2018.01.013.
Rand, D. G., Kraft-Todd, G., & Gruber, J. (2015). The collective benefits of feeling good and letting go: Positive emotion and (dis) inhibition interact to predict cooperative behavior. PLoS One, 10(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117426.
Seager, I., Mennin, D. S., & Aldao, A. (2019). Positive emotion in generalized anxiety disorder. In J. Gruber (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of positive emotion and psychopathology (pp. 298–311). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190653200.013.20.
Silton, R. L., Kahrilas, I. J., Skymba, H. V., Smith, J., Bryant, F. B., & Heller, W. (2020). Regulating positive emotions: Implications for promoting well-being in individuals with depression. Emotion, 20(1), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000675.
Sloan, E., Hall, K., Moulding, R., Bryce, S., Mildred, H., & Staiger, P. K. (2017). Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic treatment construct across anxiety, depression, substance, eating and borderline personality disorders: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 57, 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.09.002.
Spinhoven, P., Drost, J., de Rooij, M., van Hemert, A. M., & Penninx, B. W. (2014). A longitudinal study of experiential avoidance in emotional disorders. Behavior Therapy, 45(6), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2014.07.001.
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092.
Williams, M. J., Dalgleish, T., Karl, A., & Kuyken, W. (2014). Examining the factor structures of the five facet mindfulness questionnaire and the self-compassion scale. Psychological Assessment, 26(2), 407–418. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035566.
Wood, J. V., Heimpel, S. A., & Michela, J. L. (2003). Savoring versus dampening: Self-esteem differences in regulating positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 566–580. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.566.
Zhou, Y., Cao, Z., Yang, M., Xi, X., Guo, Y., Fang, M., et al. (2017). Comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and its association with quality of life in patients with major depressive disorder. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40511.
Funding
This work was supported by the Tehran University of Medical Sciences [grant number: 96–02–30-34239.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Code Availability
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The original version of this article has been revised. The author name Belén Pascual-Vera has been updated.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Abasi, I., Shams, G., Pascual-Vera, B. et al. Positive emotion regulation strategies as mediators in depression and generalized anxiety disorder symptoms: A Transdiagnostic framework investigation. Curr Psychol 42, 800–807 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01392-5
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01392-5