1 - (OP21) Identifying Key CBT Targets to Enhance Emotion Regulation Effectiveness in Daily Life

Emotion regulation (ER) is an important transdiagnostic predictor of diverse psychological symptoms, as well as a common treatment target in a range of CBTs. However, many different factors may contribute to effective emotion regulation, including traits/abilities of the client and which emotion regulation strategies they use. As such, it is not clear which ER-related targets are likely to be most important to focus on in treatment, or if there may be differences by age, gender, or race/ethnicity.

Community adults (N=374; Mage=37.2, 38% male, 63% White) were recruited, with a target of >50% endorsing high rumination/worry, to increase representation of internalizing symptoms. Following a baseline assessment, participants completed an ecological momentary assessment with up to 8 surveys per day for 10 days. Surveys assessed emotional episodes in daily life and the use of 13 strategies (engagement and avoidance related) that people employed to regulate their emotions (e.g., acceptance, rumination, distraction, reflection, reappraisal, etc.). We also measured eight ER abilities that are thought to enhance effective ER: strategy repertoire, strategy variability, differentiation of emotions, emotional awareness, contextual sensitivity, decentering ability, self-control, and executive functioning.

Machine learning (i.e., random forest models) was used to predict participants’ perceived short-term effectiveness of their daily life emotion regulation attempts, to identify the strongest strategy and ER ability predictors of effective ER. The most important predictors included decentering, acceptance, reflection, savoring, self-control, and strategy variability. Patterns of effects were visualized with partial dependence plots, and there were not notable interactions with age, gender, and race/ethnicity.

These results suggest that enhancing use of engagement ER strategies, variability in strategy use, and mindfulness-related abilities may be particularly effective ways to improve emotion regulation for clients, and there was not evidence for strong differences based upon demographic characteristics. In contrast, decreasing avoidance ER strategies (e.g., rumination, suppression, procrastination) or enhancing emotional processing abilities may be less critical for promoting effective emotion regulation in CBT. Implications for incorporating these targets into CBT will be discussed.