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. 2022 Jun 6;3(3):628-640.
doi: 10.1007/s42761-022-00122-9. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Moment-to-Moment Interplay Among Stress Appraisals and Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Daily Life

Angela Socastro  1 , Jonas Everaert  2   3 , Teresa Boemo  1 , Ivan Blanco  4 , Raquel Rodríguez-Carvajal  4 , Alvaro Sanchez-Lopez  1
Affiliations

Moment-to-Moment Interplay Among Stress Appraisals and Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Daily Life

Angela Socastro et al. Affect Sci. .

Abstract

Flexible use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies in daily life is theorized to depend on appraisals of occurring stressful events. Yet, to date, little is known about (a) how appraisals of the current situation modulate the use of ER strategies in daily life and (b) how individual differences in affective symptoms impact these relations among appraisals and ER strategy use. This study attempted to address these two limitations using a 5-day experience sampling protocol, with three surveys administered per day in a sample of 97 participants. Each survey measured momentary appraisals of stress intensity and controllability as well as ER strategy use (i.e., rumination, reappraisal, avoidance, and active coping). Results showed that, in situations of low-stress intensity, higher stress controllability was related to greater use of reappraisal and rumination. In situations of high-stress intensity, higher controllability was related to reduced use of rumination. This pattern of flexible use of ER strategies depending on momentary stress appraisals was found for both rumination and avoidance and occurred specifically in individuals reporting lower levels of depression and/or anxiety levels. These findings provide new insight into how flexible use of ER strategies in daily life is modulated by interactions between stress intensity and controllability appraisals at varying levels of affective symptoms.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00122-9.

Keywords: Active coping; Avoidance; Emotion regulation flexibility; Reappraisal; Rumination; Stress controllability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of InterestNot applicable.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Graphic depiction of the hypothesized model
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Two-way interaction between Stress Appraisals and their relation to Reappraisal use
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
a Three-way interaction between Stress Appraisals and Depression and their relation to Avoidance use. b Three-way interaction between Stress Appraisals and Anxiety and their relation to Avoidance use
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
a Two-way interaction between Stress Appraisals and their relation to Rumination use. b Three-way interaction between Stress Appraisals and Depression and their relation to Rumination use
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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