4 - (SYM 55) Social Support Enhances Cognitive Reappraisal of Stressors: An Experimental Study of Resilience in At-risk Young Adults

Background: Cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy associated with protection from depression and anxiety, is a prominent technique in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However, despite the utility of cognitive reappraisal in CBT, effects of cognitive reappraisal on depression and anxiety are small-to-medium in strength. As such, more research on factors that may enhance cognitive reappraisal effects is needed. Mechanistic work on the stress-buffering effect of social support has considered the interpersonal influence on emotion regulation in the context of stressors. Given that stressors can weaken coping-style reappraisals, individuals under stress often turn to others who can facilitate reappraisal. The present study experimentally evaluated whether social support could enhance cognitive reappraisal and benefit depression and anxiety outcomes more so than cognitive reappraisal without the influence of social support.

Method: A sample of undergraduates at-risk for depression and anxiety (N = 121; 81.8% female; 38.8% Asian) completed a novel emotion regulation task to evaluate social support’s potential benefit on cognitive reappraisal. Participants were instructed to reinterpret stressful images with (Social Condition) and without (Solo Condition) the reminder of a social support figure who participants identified as providing the most daily support. Aversiveness, negative affect, and positive affect ratings, as well as written reappraisal responses, were collected trial-by-trial.

Results: Participants reported higher positive affect (t(6884) = -7.59, p < .001), lower negative affect (t(6858) = 8.84, p</em> < .001), and lower aversiveness (t(6905) = 8.57, p < .001) in Social Condition reinterpret trials than in Solo Condition reinterpret trials. Adherence ratings of written reinterpretations were higher in the Social Condition than in the Solo Condition, t(120) =  3.47, p < .001.

Conclusions:  Results suggest that social support may enhance cognitive reappraisal, and thus may be a suitable target for interventions to increase positive affect, decrease negative affect, and lessen perceptions of aversiveness of stressors. Interventions for depression and anxiety could incorporate interpersonal influence to increase efficacy of emotion regulation skills or focus on targeting perceptions of social support to enhance individuals’ capacities to reappraise stressors. This study lends confidence to the idea that social support benefits on emotion regulation can increase resilience.