Key Points
Rationale
Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in mental health and well-being.
While previous research has examined the use and effectiveness of individual emotion regulation strategies (Gross & John, 2003; Webb et al., 2012), less is known about how individuals use multiple strategies in combination.
Recent work on “poly-regulation” suggests people may use various strategies together (Ford et al., 2019), but no formal typology of emotion regulation strategy usage exists.
Identifying such a typology could advance understanding of individual differences in emotion regulation and inform clinical interventions.
Additionally, examining links between strategy usage patterns and mental health symptoms could provide insights into adaptive and maladaptive regulatory approaches.
Method
The researchers used a combination of computational techniques, psychometric models, and growth curve modeling across six independent samples totaling 1,492 participants.
Participants completed self-report measures of emotion regulation strategy usage and mental health symptoms.
The researchers then used K-Medoids clustering to identify groups based on patterns of strategy usage.
They examined differences in mental health symptoms between clusters and used ridge regression to investigate associations between individual strategies and outcomes.
Six independent samples were used, including online and laboratory participants. Samples varied in size from 101 to 406 participants, with a total of 1,492 participants across all samples.
Participants were predominantly young adults, with mean ages ranging from 18.36 to 41.56 years. Gender and racial/ethnic composition varied across samples.
Results
Hypothesis 1: There exist distinct patterns of emotion regulation strategy usage that can be categorized into a typology.
Result: K-Medoids clustering consistently identified three clusters across samples: Hi (frequent use of all strategies), Lo (infrequent use of all strategies), and Mix (selective use of strategies).
Hypothesis 2: Cluster membership is associated with differences in mental health symptoms.
Result: The Mix cluster showed the most adaptive mental health profile, with lower anxiety, depression, general distress, and perceived stress compared to other clusters. The Lo cluster showed the least adaptive profile.
Hypothesis 3: Individual strategies are differentially associated with mental health outcomes.
Result: Increased use of reappraisal and situation selection was associated with better mental health outcomes, while increased use of suppression and distraction was associated with poorer outcomes.
Hypothesis 4: Emotion regulation strategy usage patterns are stable over time.
Result: Cluster membership showed high stability over a 2-week period (75.16% consistency) and predicted anxiety symptoms over a 60-day period.
Insight
This study provides evidence for a reliable typology of emotion regulation strategy usage, suggesting that individuals tend to fall into one of three patterns: using all strategies frequently, using all strategies infrequently, or selectively using certain strategies.
Importantly, the selective use of strategies (Mix cluster) was associated with the best mental health outcomes. This suggests that flexibly employing different strategies may be more adaptive than consistently high or low use of all strategies.
This approach provides a more nuanced understanding of emotion regulation than studies focused on single strategies.
The stability of the identified clusters over time and across samples suggests these patterns represent meaningful individual differences in regulatory tendencies.
Future research could investigate:
Strengths
Limitations
These limitations suggest caution in generalizing findings to other age groups or cultural contexts. The self-report nature of the measures may not fully capture actual strategy usage in real-world situations. Additionally, the effectiveness of different regulatory patterns may vary depending on context, which was not extensively examined in this study.
ClinicalImplications
The identification of distinct emotion regulation strategy usage patterns has significant implications for understanding individual differences in emotional functioning and mental health.
Clinically, this typology could inform assessment and treatment approaches. For example, individuals in the Lo cluster might benefit from interventions focused on increasing overall strategy usage, while those in the Hi cluster may need help with selective strategy implementation.
The finding that the Mix cluster showed the best mental health outcomes suggests that flexibility in strategy usage may be key to emotional well-being.
This aligns with emerging perspectives on emotion regulation flexibility (Chen & Bonanno, 2021) and highlights the potential benefits of teaching a diverse repertoire of strategies in clinical interventions.
The stability of cluster membership over time indicates that these patterns may represent relatively enduring individual differences. This could have implications for identifying individuals at risk for mental health problems based on their regulatory tendencies.
Variables that may influence the results include:
References
Primary reference
Guassi Moreira, J. F., Sahi, R. S., Calderon Leon, M. D., Saragosa-Harris, N. M., Waizman, Y. H., Sedykin, A. E., Ninova, E., Peris, T. S., Gross, J. J., & Silvers, J. A. (2024). A data-driven typology of emotion regulation profiles.Emotion, 24(5), 1125–1136.https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001306
Other references
Chen, S., & Bonanno, G. A. (2021). Components of emotion regulation flexibility: Linking latent profiles to depressive and anxious symptoms.Clinical Psychological Science, 9(2), 236-251.
Ford, B. Q., Gross, J. J., & Gruber, J. (2019). Broadening our field of view: The role of emotion polyregulation.Emotion Review, 11(3), 197-208.
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348-362.
Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation.Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775-808.
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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education
Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
