Emotion Regulation in Daily Life: Testing Bidirectional Temporal Associations With Positive and Negative Affect

Emotion regulation and affect are closely linked, but little is known about the directionality of their associations in daily life contexts, there is a particular lack of studies that include positive affect and its upregulation, and numerous methodological limitations constrain conclusions that can be drawn. We tested bidirectional associations of four emotion regulation strategies (distraction, reappraisal, rumination, savoring) with positive and negative affect, using ecological momentary assessment. Adult community participants (N = 345) oversampled for treatment-seeking completed up to six reports per day for 7 days. Residual dynamic structural equation modeling showed that savoring and rumination were bidirectionally associated with positive and negative affect, indicating "virtuous" and "vicious" feedback loops, respectively. Distraction and reappraisal were both predicted by heightened negative affect, and reappraisal also had reciprocal associations with positive affect. Exploratory analyses indicated that clinical status generally did not influence associations between affect and emotion regulation. Results suggest affective cycles associated with repetitive thinking (e.g., rumination and savoring) that may inhibit or support well-being, whereas associations with distraction and reappraisal may depend upon contextual factors.