Category: Transdiagnostic
Bonanno, G. A., Westphal, M., & Mancini, A. D. (2011). Resilience to loss and potential trauma. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 7, 511-535. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032210-104526
,Lincoln, T. M., Schulze, L., & Renneberg, B. (2022). The role of emotion regulation in the characterization, development and treatment of psychopathology. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(5), 272-286. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00040-4
, Riepenhausen, A., Wackerhagen, C., Reppmann, Z. C., Deter, H. C., Kalisch, R., Veer, I. M., & Walter, H. (2022). Positive cognitive reappraisal in stress resilience, mental health, and well-being: A comprehensive systematic review. Emotion Review, 14(4), 310-331. https://doi.org/10.1177/17540739221114642, Aldao, A. (2013). The future of emotion regulation research: Capturing Context. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(2), 155-172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612459518Alainna Wen, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Allison Metts, M.A. (she/her/hers)
Doctoral Candidate
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Liliana Lengua, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Professor
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Emily Willroth, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
Kate Kuhlman, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, California
Alainna Wen, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Allison Metts, M.A. (she/her/hers)
Doctoral Candidate
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Stress-related disorders – including depressive, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders – typically onset during adolescence (Kessler et al., 2007) and are prevalent, disabling, and burdensome (Kessler et al., 2012; Hendriks et al., 2015). Whereas life stress is a robust predictor of these disorders, particularly for adolescents (Hammen, 2005; Mineka et al., 2020), not all individuals develop disorders after stressors. Research on processes that contribute to resilience – the maintenance of mental health after experiencing stressors (Bonanno et al., 2011; Kalisch et al., 2017) – is crucial to inform intervention and prevention efforts aimed at improving wellbeing.
Emotion regulation – the process by which individuals control emotional experiences and expressions (Gross, 1998) – is a transdiagnostic process in stress-related disorders (Aldao et al., 2016). Emotion regulation strategies have been linked with risk for (e.g., rumination; avoidance) and protection from (e.g., acceptance; cognitive reappraisal) depression and anxiety (Lincoln et al., 2022). More broadly, emotion regulation may play a role in resilience against the experience of stressors (Troy & Mauss, 2011). However, much of the mechanism by which emotion regulation confers resilience against stress-related disorders remains to be understood.
The current symposium provides an overview of emotion regulation and resilience to stress-related disorders with a developmental psychopathology focus. Specifically, we (1) evaluate emotion regulation and describe its transdiagnostic role in resilience against stress; (2) present novel frameworks and methods on studying how emotion regulation confers resilience against stress-related disorders in at-risk samples; and (3) discuss the application of novel findings to prevention and intervention efforts for stress-related disorders.
First, Emily Willroth will present on an integrative affect-regulation framework of resilience and discuss its role in advancing the conceptualization of resilience and ways to apply this framework to investigate prevention and treatment of stress-related disorders. Next, Kate Kuhlman will discuss the role of executive functioning in emotion regulatory domains in the link between inflammation and depression, present evidence from a sample of at-risk adolescents, and discuss implications for primary interventions in this population. Alainna Wen will then describe the novel construct of emotion regulation diversity, present findings on its link with symptom trajectory in adolescents at-risk for depression and anxiety, and discuss implications for treatment personalization for these disorders. Lastly, Allison Metts will present on findings from an innovative social emotion regulation paradigm in young adults at-risk for depression and anxiety, describe interpersonal influences on the outcome of cognitive reappraisal, and discuss ways to incorporate interpersonal factors in interventions. Liliana Lengua will serve as the discussant, integrating the presentations and expanding upon the theme of emotion regulation and resilience against stress using a lifespan approach, and highlighting the implications for interventions aimed at promoting resilience.