Trait Neuroticism is Associated with how Often People Switch Between Emotion Regulation Strategies Used to Manage Negative Emotions in Daily Life

Abstract

Switching between different emotion regulation strategies may promote mental health by helping match strategy use to different situations. However, switching strategies very frequently might undermine any given regulation attempt. Individuals with high levels of self-reported neuroticism may have trouble finding the right balance of strategy switching versus persistence given increased negative emotionality and impulsivity; yet it is unclear whether this difficulty is characterized by too much switching, too little switching, or both. As such, we tested whether high or low rates of strategy switching within daily life was associated with trait neuroticism. We quantified how N = 89 college students switched between 20 strategies to regulate positive emotions and 20 strategies to regulate negative emotions when sampled three times daily for 10 days. We tested whether the linear or quadratic effects of strategy switching—when measured across all 20 positive emotion- or all 20 negative emotion-focused strategies, and within smaller classes of related strategies—were associated with neuroticism. We found that lower rates of switching amongst all strategies used to regulate negative emotions, and specifically amongst the adaptive engagement strategies, was associated with higher rates of neuroticism. Moderate switching amongst the aversive cognitive perseveration strategies, by contrast, was associated with higher neuroticism. Switching amongst strategies used to regulate positive emotions was not associated with neuroticism at the overall or class level. This pre-registered study suggests that neuroticism is associated with unique patterns of strategy switching in response to negative—but not necessarily positive—emotions in daily life.