Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Adults

Sample size: 290 publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Tammy Washington, Springstein Tabea

Primary Institution: Washington University in St. Louis

The study investigates how flexibility in emotion regulation strategies relates to well-being across adulthood.

Higher well-being is associated with both flexible and frequent use of certain emotion regulation strategies.

Individuals with higher well-being used some strategies flexibly and more frequently.
Some strategies were used flexibly but not more or less frequently.
Certain strategies were used more frequently but not flexibly.

This study shows that being able to change how you handle your feelings can make you feel better, and different people do this in different ways.

An experience sampling study where participants reported their emotion regulation strategies 6 times a day for 10 days.

The study may not account for all individual differences in emotion regulation.

Adults aged 25 to 85 years.

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