The use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies is linked to worse coping during the first year of the pandemic - PsyPost

Adaptive strategies like positive reappraisal mitigated anxiety and depression during the early phase of the pandemic, while maladaptive strategies like rumination worsened symptoms.

Research suggests that adaptive emotion regulation strategies, like acceptance and positive reappraisal, can buffer the negative effects of adversity.

By contrast, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, like catastrophizing and rumination, have been linked to worse psychological health.

Throughout the pandemic, participants completed multiple assessments of anxiety, depression, and emotion regulation strategy use.

Overall, the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies was associated with higher depression and anxiety, while the use of adaptive strategies was associated with lower anxiety but not depression.

For example, positive reappraisal, which is when a person assigns a positive meaning to a stressful situation, appeared to mitigate depression and anxiety during the early phase of the pandemic.

“Our findings underline the potential of interventions minimizing maladaptive emotion regulation use in response to negative life events,” the authors write, later adding, “Due to substantial personal and societal costs associated with mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression, an early identification of risk factors for the development and biological and psychological markers for treatment response are of great importance.”.