Aldao, a., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., and Schweizer, S. "Emotion-regulation strategies

across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review." Clinical Psychology

Review, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2010): 217 -- 237.

Summary

This article considered of a meta-analytic review of data pertaining to six typical strategies of regulating emotion in relation to four different types of psychopathology. More specifically, the researchers considered the following emotion-regulation strategies: acceptance, avoidance, problem solving, reappraisal, rumination, and suppression; and they considered them in the context of each of the following psychological disorders: anxiety, depression, eating, and substance-related disorders. The method employed by the researchers consisted of primarily of systematic literature searches of studies presenting data about any of the six emotion-regulation strategies in the context of any of the four types of psychological disorders. The authors also conducted various supplementary searches of available databases, articles with potentially relevant literature cited as references, and solicited colleagues for their experience and recommendations identifying relevant sources of additional data. The data analysis suggested that certain types of emotion-regulation strategies are more likely to be associated with psychological dysfunction than others and also that at least one prominent psychotherapeutic approach may rely too heavily on assumptions not borne out by the results of those data analyses.

Main Points of Article

The data analyses indicated that maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies such as ruminations, avoidance, and suppression were all associated more with psychopathology than were adaptive emotion-regulation strategies such as acceptance, reappraisal, and problem-solving. Perhaps more importantly, the data analyses also suggested that the connection between...

In general, maladaptive strategies were associated with psychopathology much more frequently than adaptive strategies. The implication drawn in that regard is that the presence of maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies is more important as a predictor of psychopathology than the mere absence of adaptive emption-regulation strategies. More specifically, the researchers also considered each emotion-regulation strategy in relation to each form of psychopathology separately. That series of analyses provided empirical evidence explaining the clinical observation that mood-related psychopathologies such as depression and anxiety are more closely underlying problems in relation to emotion regulation than are externalizing psychopathologies such as eating disorders and substance abuse.
Conclusion

In formulating the major implications of this meta-analytical review, the researchers emphasized the fact that while the strategies of acceptance-based therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy are prominent approaches to psychotherapeutic intervention, the emotion-regulation strategies most closely related to those approaches were the least prominent of the types of emotion-regulation strategies documented in connection with psychopathology. Ultimately, the research design was limited by reliance on self-reported data, the difficulty of isolating strategies from areas of overlap, and by the necessary reliance on random-effects modeling to generalize the applicability of small effect sizes and data cells. Nevertheless, the data analysis strongly supports future research that considers specific emotion-regulation strategies in relation to specific psychopathology and in the context of psychotherapeutic treatment approaches likely to be most appropriate based on those patterns and relationships.