Symposium 86 - Harnessing Ecological Momentary Assessment Methods to Elucidate Emotion Regulation Skills Use in Anxiety and Mood Disorders

Chair(s)

• MC

  Michal Clayton, M.S. (she/her/hers)

  Teachers College, Columbia University
  New York, New York

Discussant(s)

• BT

  Bethany Teachman, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  University of Virginia
  Charlottesvle, Virginia

Presenter(s)

• MC

  Michal Clayton, M.S. (she/her/hers)

  Teachers College, Columbia University
  New York, New York
• DL

  Daphne Liu, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Stony Brook University
  Stony Brook, New York
• 

  Katharine Daniel, M.A.

  Clinical Psychology PhD Student
  Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
  Charlottesville, Virginia
• 

  Matthew Southward, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Research Assistant Professor
  University of Kentucky
  Lexington, Kentucky

Emotion regulation (ER), or the process by which individuals influence their emotional experience or expression, is a dynamic construct well suited to repeated measurement using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods. Unlike traditional self-report measures subject to recall bias or laboratory assessments lacking in ecological validity, EMA offers the opportunity to understand how individuals regulate their emotions in real-time during daily life. Better understanding the complexity of ER dynamics is particularly relevant for treating individuals with anxiety and mood disorders who, relative to healthy controls, have greater difficulty implementing effective ER in daily life. Indeed, many evidence-based interventions incorporate ER skill-building into treatment, which is aligned with emphases in the literature on improving adaptive abilities in addition to reducing symptoms of psychopathology.

This symposium aims to provide an overview of different ways EMA methods can broaden our understanding of ER and encourage discussion on the benefits and best uses of repeated measurement of ER during daily life. Speakers will highlight examples of studies that leveraged EMA methods to study ER in interesting ways, including in relation to positive and negative emotionality, motivations for not regulating, and the impact of skills trainings on frequency and type of ER. All studies focus on individuals with elevated mood or anxiety symptoms, and together represent a broad array of approaches for using EMA to study ER and related psychological constructs. Most importantly, the results of these studies advance our understanding of how to appropriately incorporate ER skills into treatment for mood and anxiety disorders.

The first talk will examine whether using acceptance and reappraisal ER skills alters associations between momentary negative affect (NA) and worry and rumination at the end of the day for individuals with and without generalized anxiety disorder. The second talk will present the nuanced ways in which momentary positive affect is associated with the use of six ER strategies for adults with major depressive disorder. The third talk will examine the reasons why individuals choose not to regulate their emotions, including lack of skill or motivation, in a sample of adults with elevated social anxiety. Finally, the fourth talk will present data on the impact of brief, digital ER trainings on ER skill use and momentary changes in NA among people with elevated emotion dysregulation. Our discussant will conclude with a discussion of the clinical implications of these talks, particularly for the development of scalable, ER-focused interventions to improve outcomes for individuals with anxiety and mood disorders.