Seeing the silver lining: cognitive reappraisal ability moderates the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Individuals differ in their adjustment to stressful life events, with some exhibiting impaired functioning, including depression, while others exhibit impressive resilience. The present study examined the hypothesis that the ability to deploy a particularly adaptive type of emotion regulation-cognitive reappraisal-may be a protective factor. It expands upon existing research in three ways. First, participants' ability to use reappraisal (cognitive reappraisal ability: CRA) was measured by using a behavioral challenge that assessed changes in experiential and physiological domains, rather than questionnaires. Second, all participants had been exposed to one or more recent stressful life events, a context in which emotion regulation may be particularly important. Third, a community sample of 78 women aged 20 to 60 was recruited, as opposed to undergraduates. Results indicate that, at low levels of stress, participants' CRA was not associated with depressive symptoms. However, at high levels of stress, women with high CRA exhibited less depressive symptoms than those with low CRA, suggesting that CRA may be an important moderator of the link between stress and depressive symptoms.

Figure 1

Schematic of experimental procedures for measuring cognitive reappraisal ability (CRA).

Figure 2

Sadness ratings (change from baseline sad film clip) during the cognitive reappraisal task for each experimental group. The Y-axis represents the z-scored sadness ratings during either Sad Film 2 or Sad Film 3, minus z-scored sadness ratings during the baseline sad film (Film 1). Thus, more negative scores mean greater decrease in self-reported sadness relative to the baseline sad film. R’s indicate which experimental group was instructed to use cognitive reappraisal during each film clip.

Figure 3

The interaction of cumulative stress and cognitive reappraisal ability (CRA) on current depressive symptoms (BDI = Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory). Panel A uses CRA-SAD (changes in sadness) as the index of CRA, while Panel B uses CRA-SCL (changes in skin conductance level). Values depict estimates at ± 1 SD for cumulative stress and CRA. Asterisks denote slopes that are significantly different than zero (* p < .05. ** p < .01.).