RESEARCH PAPER
Emotion regulation strategies and satisfaction with life: mediating roles of positive and negative mind-wandering
1
Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Submission date: 2024-03-15
Final revision date: 2024-07-04
Acceptance date: 2024-09-11
Online publication date: 2024-11-13
Corresponding author
Marek Kowalczyk
Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background:
Habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as emotion regulation strategies has been shown to relate differently to dispositional positive and negative affect and satisfaction with life. In this study, we aimed to establish the role of affectively different forms of mind-wandering – i.e., spontaneously initiated thinking about matters unrelated to the individual’s current task and the immediate environment – in the associations between the employment of each of these strategies and life satisfaction. Our main theoretical idea was that affective consequences of employing cognitive reapprais-al and expressive suppression influence positive and negative mind-wandering, which contribute to satisfaction with life.
Participants and procedure:
A convenient sample of 217 respondents (154 women) aged 19-88 (M = 44.97, SD = 17.16) filled out questionnaires as-sessing variables of interest: the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule–Trait, the Task-Unrelated Thoughts Questionnaire, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale.
Results:
In the estimated PLS-SEM structural model, there were significant indirect paths leading from emotion regulation strategies to satisfaction with life through 1) positive or negative affect and positive or negative mind-wandering as sequential media-tors, 2) positive affect (over and above its associations with positive and negative mind-wandering), 3) positive and negative mind-wandering (due to their negative associations with suppression).
Conclusions:
Positive and negative mind-wandering may mediate the relationships between the frequency with which individuals employ cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to regulate emotions and their global life satisfaction.
Habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as emotion regulation strategies has been shown to relate differently to dispositional positive and negative affect and satisfaction with life. In this study, we aimed to establish the role of affectively different forms of mind-wandering – i.e., spontaneously initiated thinking about matters unrelated to the individual’s current task and the immediate environment – in the associations between the employment of each of these strategies and life satisfaction. Our main theoretical idea was that affective consequences of employing cognitive reapprais-al and expressive suppression influence positive and negative mind-wandering, which contribute to satisfaction with life.
Participants and procedure:
A convenient sample of 217 respondents (154 women) aged 19-88 (M = 44.97, SD = 17.16) filled out questionnaires as-sessing variables of interest: the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule–Trait, the Task-Unrelated Thoughts Questionnaire, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale.
Results:
In the estimated PLS-SEM structural model, there were significant indirect paths leading from emotion regulation strategies to satisfaction with life through 1) positive or negative affect and positive or negative mind-wandering as sequential media-tors, 2) positive affect (over and above its associations with positive and negative mind-wandering), 3) positive and negative mind-wandering (due to their negative associations with suppression).
Conclusions:
Positive and negative mind-wandering may mediate the relationships between the frequency with which individuals employ cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to regulate emotions and their global life satisfaction.
REFERENCES (40)
1.
Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Smallwood, J., & Spreng, R. N. (2014). The default network and self-generated thought: Component processes, dynamic control, and clinical relevance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1316, 29–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.1....
2.
Balzarotti, S., John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2010). An Italian adaptation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26, 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5....
3.
Blouin-Hudon, E. C., & Zelenski, J. M. (2016). The daydreamer: Exploring the personality underpinnings of day-dreaming styles and their implications for well-being. Consciousness and Cognition, 44, 114–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conc....
4.
Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., & Kashdan, T. (2017). Emotion regulation strategies in daily life: Mindful-ness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 46, 91–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/165060....
5.
Brzozowski, P. (2010). Skala Uczuć Pozytywnych i Negatywnych SUPIN. Polska adaptacja skali PANAS Davida Watso-na i Lee Anny Clark. Podręcznik [The Scale of Positive and Negative Feelings. The Polish adaptation of the PANAS by David Watson and Lee Ann Clark. The Manual]. Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych PTP.
6.
Cabello, R., Salguero, J. M., Fernández-Berrocal, P., & Gross, J. J. (2013). A Spanish adaptation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 29, 234–240. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5....
7.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10....
8.
Gid, M., & Kowalczyk, M. (2019). Mind wandering, activity, and current concerns among adults varying in age. A study using the Task-Unrelated Thoughts Questionnaire. Przegląd Psychologiczny, 62, 495–509.
9.
Gross, J. J. (2014). Emotion regulation: Conceptual and empirical foundations. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (2nd ed., pp. 3–20). The Guilford Press.
10.
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for af-fect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3....
11.
Haga, S. M., Kraft, P., & Corby, E. K. (2009). Emotion regulation: Antecedents and well-being outcomes of cogni-tive reappraisal and expressive suppression in cross-cultural samples. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 271–291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902....
12.
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (3rd ed.). Sage.
13.
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., Sarstedt, M., Danks, N. P., & Ray, S. (2021). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using R. Springer.
14.
Huba, G. J., Aneshensel, C. S., & Singer, J. L. (1981). Development of scales for three second-order factors of inner experience. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 16, 181–206. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327....
15.
Ioannidis, C. A., & Siegling, A. B. (2015). Criterion and incremental validity of the emotion regulation question-naire. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 247. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.....
16.
Jankowski, K. S. (2015). Is the shift in chronotype associated with an alteration in well-being? Biological Rhythm Research, 46, 237–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/092910....
17.
Kane, M. J., Gross, G. M., Chun, C. A., Smeekens, B. A., Meier, M. E., Silvia, P. J., & Kwapil, T. R. (2017). For whom the mind wanders, and when, varies across laboratory and daily-life settings. Psychological Science, 28, 1271–1289. https://doi.org/10.1177/095679....
18.
Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330, 932. https://doi.org/10.1126/scienc....
19.
Kobylińska, D., Zajenkowski, M., Lewczuk, K., Jankowski, K. S., & Marchlewska, M. (2022). The mediational role of emotion regulation in the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Current Psychology, 41, 4098–4111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144....
20.
Kowalczyk, M. (2013). Kwestionariusz “Myśli oderwane od zadania”. Doniesienie wstępne [Off-Task Thoughts Questionnaire. Preliminary communication]. Polskie Forum Psychologiczne, 18, 173–196.
21.
Kowalczyk, M. (2021). Starzenie się w błądzeniu myślami [Aging in mind-wandering]. WPiK Open Ac-cess/Wydawnictwo Rys. https://doi.org/10.48226/978-8....
22.
Kowalczyk, M., Klonowska, M., & Mikietyńska, A. (2023). Separating the general and content-specific compo-nents of self-reported propensity for mind-wandering. Journal of Individual Differences, 44, 271–278. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0....
23.
LeBlanc, S., Uzun, B., & Aydemir, A. (2021). Structural relationship among mindfulness, reappraisal and life satis-faction: The mediating role of positive affect. Current Psychology, 40, 4406–4415. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144....
24.
Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Cardeña, E., & Terhune, D. B. (2016). Daydreaming style moderates the relation between working memory and mind-wandering: Integrating two hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 42, 451–464. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm000....
25.
Mason, M. F., Brown, K., Mar, R. A., & Smallwood, J. (2013). Driver of discontent or escape vehicle: the affective consequences of mind-wandering. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 477. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.....
26.
Plimpton, B., Patel, P., & Kvavilashvili, L. (2015). Role of triggers and dysphoria in mind-wandering about past, present and future: a laboratory study. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 261–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conc....
27.
Poerio, G. L., Totterdell, P., & Miles, E. (2013). Mind-wandering and negative mood: Does one thing really lead to another? Consciousness and Cognition, 22, 1412–1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conc....
28.
Ray, S., Danks, N. P., & Calero Valdez, A. (2022). SEMinR: Building and estimating structural equation models, v. 2.3.2 [computer software]. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/pac....
29.
Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J. (2000). Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one’s cool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 410–424. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3....
30.
Ruby, F. J. M., Smallwood, J., Engen, H., & Singer, T. (2013). How self-generated thought shapes mood – the rela-tion between mind-wandering and mood depends on the socio-temporal content of thoughts. PLoS One, 8, e77554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journa....
31.
Schutte, N. S., Manes, R. R., & Malouff, J. M. (2009). Antecedent-focused emotion regulation, response modula-tion and well-being. Current Psychology, 28, 21–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144....
32.
Seibert, P. S., & Ellis, H. C. (1991). Irrelevant thoughts, emotional mood states, and cognitive task performance. Memory & Cognition, 19, 507–513. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF0319....
33.
Shmueli, G., Sarstedt, M., Hair, J. F., Cheah, J. H., Ting, H., Vaithilingam, S., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). Predictive model assessment in PLS-SEM: Guidelines for using PLSpredict. European Journal of Marketing, 53, 2322–2347. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-02....
34.
Smallwood, J., & O’Connor, R. C. (2011). Imprisoned by the past: Unhappy moods lead to a retrospective bias to mind wandering. Cognition & Emotion, 25, 1481–1490. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999....
35.
Smallwood, J., Fitzgerald, A., Miles, L. K., & Phillips, L. H. (2009). Shifting moods, wandering minds: Negative moods lead the mind to wander. Emotion, 9, 271–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a00148....
36.
Stawarczyk, D., Majerus, S., & D’Argembeau, A. (2013). Concern-induced negative affect is associated with the occurrence and content of mind-wandering. Consciousness and Cognition, 22, 442–448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conc....
37.
Toh, W. X., & Yang, H. (2022). Executive function moderates the effect of reappraisal on life satisfaction: a latent variable analysis. Emotion, 22, 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo000....
38.
Torres-Irribarra, D., Ibaceta, M. & Preiss, D. D. (2019). Positive and negative mind wandering: an assessment of their relationship with mindfulness and metacognition in university students. Studies in Psychology, 40, 664–701. https://doi.org/10.1080/021093....
39.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and nega-tive affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-....
40.
Zhiyan, T., & Singer, J. L. (1997). Daydreaming styles, emotionality and the Big Five personality dimensions. Imag-ination, Cognition and Personality, 16, 399–414. https://doi.org/10.2190/ATEH-9....
Copyright: © Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
Share
RELATED ARTICLE
| eISSN: | 2353-561X |
| ISSN: | 2353-4192 |
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
