Distress tolerance in romantic relationships: A daily diary exploration with methodological considerations

Motivation and Emotion - Despite growing research interest in distress tolerance (DT), studies have routinely neglected the role that DT plays in close, interpersonal relationships and how DT...     

Projecting loneliness into the past and future: implications for self-esteem and affect

Motivation and Emotion - Loneliness reflects a threat to people’s need to belong in close relationships, and is associated with lower self-esteem and emotional distress. The current 2-week...     

Predicting college students' psychological distress through basic psychological need-relevant practices by teachers,peers, and the academic program

Motivation and Emotion - Psychological distress (PD) is highly prevalent among college students. However, not much is known about the role study programs can have in fostering or reducing PD. Two...     

Are Specific Emotion Regulation Strategies Differentially Associated with Posttraumatic Growth Versus Stress?

Extremely few studies have examined emotion regulation strategies as predictors of posttraumatic growth (PTG). This study aimed to examine several specific emotion regulation strategies, along with meaning making, as predictors of PTG, as opposed to posttraumatic distress. Participants were 107 adult women who had experienced a very stressful or traumatic event within the past 3 years and completed questionnaires measuring emotion regulation, meaning making, distress, and PTG. Emotion suppression positively predicted distress, but not PTG. Meaning making positively predicted PTG and negatively predicted distress. Bootstrapped mediation models showed that emotional processing has a significant indirect effect on PTG and distress through its effect on meaning making. Results indicate that researchers should pay closer attention to emotional processes involved in etiological models of PTG. It might also be helpful to examine specific emotion regulation strategies, as these can point to ways to help people navigate recovery from trauma.     

Parental Distress Tolerance in Three Periods of Child Development: The Moderating Role of Child Temperament

Emotion regulation (ER) is essential to everyday, normative functioning. One aspect of ER is distress tolerance—the ability to persist in goal-directed activities when experiencing aversive states. Despite an assumption that ER improves with age, very little is known about ER across parenthood. Emotion regulation may be taxed by parenthood with implications for negativity in the family environment. The purpose of the current study was to describe levels of distress tolerance across periods of parenthood and to evaluate child temperament as a moderator of the relationship between child’s age and parents’ distress tolerance. A total of 602 parents (66.3% female, M _age ? =?32.31 years, SD?=?7.07) whose eldest child belonged to one of three developmental periods (i.e., infancy, n?=?187; early childhood, n?=?214; late childhood, n?=?201) completed an online survey. While we found no evidence for a main effect of child’s age on parent distress tolerance, children’s negative affectivity moderated the association between period of parenthood and parent distress tolerance. Specifically, children who were higher in negative affectivity had parents who reported less distress tolerance between the developmental periods. The implications of the current study are discussed in the context of current and future research on emotional regulation among parents.     

Conscience in childhood: old questions, new answers

Although conscience has been the focus of reflection for centuries, fundamental questions regarding its organization have not been fully answered. To address those questions, the authors applied structural equation modeling techniques to longitudinal data comprising multiple behavioral measures of children's conscience, obtained in parallel fashion at 33 and 45 months. The measures encompassed moral emotion (guilt and empathic distress) and rule-compatible conduct (internalization of maternal prohibitions and requests and of another adult's rules). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a differentiated view of conscience with 2 latent factors at both ages: Moral Emotion and Rule-Compatible Conduct. The structure of conscience was remarkably stable over time. The coherence between Moral Emotion and Rule-Compatible Conduct factors increased as children grew older.     

Correction to: A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion -     

Stress and family support as predictors of distress and rejection in people who care for a relative with schizophrenia

Relatives (N=121) of adult schizophrenia patients were interviewed to investigate predictors of their level of psychological distress and of rejecting attitudes toward the sufferer. The relatives' total stress, particularly that associated with poor communication skills in the sufferer, predicted several measures of their psychological distress, and the same variables plus turbulence of sufferer behavior (i.e., violence and disruptiveness) predicted rejection of the sufferer by the relative. In each case, adequacy of family support moderated the influence of the stressors, although this effect was more marked for distress outcomes than for rejection. The results have important implications for the sorts of professional and peer support which relatives may need to encourage their performance of this potentially burdensome role. In addition, the results fit a classic stress management model and provide a feasible alternative to the Expressed Emotion Model of the relationship between relatives' rejection and patients' illness severity.     

Emotion dysregulation and adolescent psychopathology: a prospective study

Background

Emotion regulation deficits have been consistently linked to psychopathology in cross-sectional studies. However, the direction of the relationship between emotion regulation and psychopathology is unclear. This study examined the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships between emotion regulation deficits and psychopathology in adolescents.

Methods

Emotion dysregulation and symptomatology (depression, anxiety, aggressive behavior, and eating pathology) were assessed in a large, diverse sample of adolescents (N = 1065) at two time points separated by seven months. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships between emotion dysregulation and symptoms of psychopathology.

Results

The three distinct emotion processes examined here (emotional understanding, dysregulated expression of sadness and anger, and ruminative responses to distress) formed a unitary latent emotion dysregulation factor. Emotion dysregulation predicted increases in anxiety symptoms, aggressive behavior, and eating pathology after controlling for baseline symptoms but did not predict depressive symptoms. In contrast, none of the four types of psychopathology predicted increases in emotion dysregulation after controlling for baseline emotion dysregulation.

Conclusions

Emotion dysregulation appears to be an important transdiagnostic factor that increases risk for a wide range of psychopathology outcomes in adolescence. These results suggest targets for preventive interventions during this developmental period of risk.     

A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion - Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study...     

A Chinese Adaptation of the Distress Tolerance Scale among Adolescents: Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Chinese adaptation of the Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS; Simons & Gaher. Motivation and Emotion, 29, 83–102, 2005) among 5,423 (2,857 boys) Chinese adolescents. Results of the confirmatory factor analyses supported a hierarchical model encompassing four first-order factors: Tolerance, Absorption, Appraisal and Regulation, and one second-order factor, General Distress Intolerance, which was comprised of the first three first-order factors. Acceptable levels of internal consistency and 6-month test-retest reliability were demonstrated in the second-order and all first-order factors. The Chinese DTS also displayed good convergent and discriminant validity with negative emotion, emotion reactivity and maladaptive impulsive coping behaviors. Chinese adolescent girls possessed lower distress tolerance ability than their boy counterparts. Additionally, the strength of associations between distress tolerance and negative affectivity was larger in girls than in boys. This study suggests that the Chinese DTS appears to be a psychometrically sound measure of distress (in)tolerance among adolescents.     

Correction to: A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion - Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study...     

Changes in Problematic Anger,Shame, and Disgust in Anxious and Depressed Adults Undergoing Treatment for Emotion Dysregulation

Emotion dysregulation, the pervasive difficulty managing negative emotions, is a core problem across mood and anxiety disorders. Anger, shame, and disgust are particularly problematic emotions, impacting both disorder severity and treatment outcome. We previously found that a 16-week dialectical behavior therapy skills training group (DBT-ST) was superior to an activities-based support group (ASG) in decreasing emotion dysregulation in 44 adults with high emotion dysregulation who met diagnostic criteria for an anxiety or depressive disorder. We presently examine these participants’ changes in anger, shame, disgust, and distress using self-reports collected over 6 months during and after treatment. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses show that DBT-ST was superior to ASG in decreasing anger suppression (d = 0.93) and distress (d = 1.04). Both conditions significantly reduced shame, disgust propensity, and disgust sensitivity, but neither was superior for these outcomes. The treatments did not significantly reduce anger expression. Mediation analyses suggest that condition indirectly influenced 4-month anger suppression, shame, and distress through its effect on 2-month emotion dysregulation. These findings suggest that DBT-ST is efficacious for certain problematic emotions and distress in depressed and anxious adults and that common factors may account for some, but not all, of its benefits.     

A comprehensive model of women’s social cognition and responsiveness to infant crying: Integrating personality,emotion, executive function,and sleep

Disparate lines of research suggest that women’s (a) emotion regulation and personality, (b) executive function and (c) sleep may be important predictors of mothers’ cry responding in part through their effects on social cognition. However, the extent to which each contributes to cry responding independently remains unknown. We examined this question in a convenience sample of 109 nulliparous undergraduate women. Women completed online surveys to assess personality and emotion dysregulation traits, then visited the lab for a testing session during which they reported on sleep the night before and reactions to videotapes of crying infants and completed computerized working memory and inhibitory control tasks under challenging noise conditions (exposure to traffic and cry sounds). Results indicate that women’s positive personality and higher working memory were associated with higher levels of infant-oriented cry processing (i.e., accurate distress detection, empathy and situational/emotional attributions about distress), which in turn was associated with higher intended responsiveness to infant crying. Emotion dysregulation and deficits in inhibitory control were associated with higher levels of self-oriented cry processing (i.e., anger, anxiety, negative and emotion minimizing attributions in response to infant distress), which in turn was associated with lower cry responsiveness. Short-term sleep deprivation was associated with lower intended responsiveness via the above path from poorer inhibitory control to heightened self-oriented cry processing. Findings suggest that sleep, emotional and cognitive factors are associated with cry processing and subsequent responsiveness independent of one another.     

Confirming the Factor Structure of the 41-Item Version of the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale

The main aim of this study was to investigate the factor structure of the 41-item version of the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale within a South African nursing environment. An availability non-probability sample (N =290) of nurses from hospitals in the North-West and Gauteng Provinces of South Africa were taken. Participants completed the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS). The data were analysed by employing Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via AMOS. The data fitted the original model of Emotional Intelligence of Salovey and Mayer (1990), best explaining 58.52% of the variance. The results supported a five-factor structure of the SEIS. The five factors were named: Emotion Utilisation; Emotion Management; Emotion Awareness; Emotion Perceiving and Emotion Integration.     

Emotion regulation difficulties associated with the experience of uncued panic attacks: evidence of experiential avoidance, emotional nonacceptance, and decreased emotional clarity

Emotion regulation difficulties among nonclinical uncued panickers were examined in two studies. In Study 1, participants with a recent history of uncued panic attacks (n  =  91), compared to a nonpanic sample (n  =  91), reported significantly greater levels of experiential avoidance, lack of emotional acceptance, and lack of emotional clarity. In Study 2, a subset of uncued panickers and nonpanickers from Study 1 (n = 17 per group) viewed positive and negative emotion-eliciting film clips. Despite comparable levels of self-reported distress and physiological arousal, panickers reported using more emotionally avoidant regulation strategies during both film clips. Panic participants also responded with greater negative emotion to the positive emotion-eliciting clip. Results are discussed in terms of their research and clinical implications.     

Cognitive counselling intervention: treatment effectiveness in an Italian university centre

Offering counselling to students is increasingly considered as a key academic service. However, the reduction of resources allocated to Italian universities emphasises the need to assess the quality of interventions. This paper presents data reporting the effectiveness of a university counselling service. A sample of 45 undergraduate students completed a cognitive-relational intervention at a counselling service in a University in the North of Italy. The project focused on the development of reappraisal skills and problem-solving strategies to manage difficult situations. The results showed a significant pre and post-intervention reduction in self-reported psychopathological symptoms (measured with Symptoms Check List 90-Revised) as well as in general levels of distress (measured with Clinical Outcome in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure). A significant increase in reappraisal levels, measured with the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, was observed, which is a focal element of the counselling intervention. There were no detectable changes in the level of suppression.     

Pathways to behavior problems in Norwegian kindergarten children: The role of parent emotion socialization and child emotion understanding

More than two decades of research have shown that parental emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs) significantly predict child emotion understanding and externalizing behavior problems. This study aimed to replicate these findings in a sample of 40 Norwegian preschool children and to test whether the effect of parental ERSBs on externalizing child behavior problems was mediated through child emotion understanding. Parental report on ERSBs was obtained using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) questionnaire. Child emotion understanding was assessed directly using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). The results showed that parental distress reactions and externalizing child behavior problems were significantly correlated and that parental expressive encouragement was significantly correlated with child emotion understanding. Estimation of indirect effects was conducted using process analysis and showed that parental expressive encouragement was indirectly related to externalizing child behavior problems (b = −0.17) via child emotion understanding. The results suggest that better child emotion understanding, and lower parental distress are related to lower levels of behavior problems in preschool children. These findings provide support for the Parental Meta-Emotion Philosophy (PMEP) model, where the effect of parental emotion socialization on externalizing child behavior problems is mediated through emotion understanding.     

The influence of facial blushing and paling on emotion perception and memory

Motivation and Emotion - Emotion expressions facilitate interpersonal communication by conveying information about a person’s affective state. The current work investigates how facial...