Dynamic associations between daily acting with awareness and emotion regulation in individuals living with the effects of a stroke

Abstract

One often-overlooked consequence of stroke is a deficit in emotion regulation. Acting with awareness in everyday life has been found to support emotion regulation but it is an open question whether such associations generalize to stroke populations. Factors associated with emotion regulation in stroke survivors are key to inform rehabilitation efforts. This study used up to 14 repeated daily life assessments to examine everyday associations between acting with awareness and affect in a sample of 86 community-dwelling adults post-stroke living in Southern British Columbia, Canada (M_age = 68.70, SD = 10.56; range = 33–88; 26.7% female; 63.8% with less than college degree). Multilevel models examined the extent to which daily acting with awareness, previous-day negative affect, and previous-day positive affect were associated with daily negative and positive affect. Multilevel models operationally defined emotion regulation as affect carry-over, the extent to which affect lingered from one day to the next. Results revealed that on days when acting with awareness was elevated, negative affect did not carry over from the previous day, suggesting greater emotion regulation. Additionally, on days when acting with awareness was elevated, positive affect was maintained from day to day, indicating lingering positivity effects. Future research should expand upon our correlational findings, as the opposite causal direction might also hold—affect may increase the likelihood of acting with awareness. Overall, findings suggest that mindfulness-based interventions after stroke might benefit from a greater focus on daily acting with awareness.