Social support and cognitive reappraisal in adolescent females: The moderating role of lifetime stressor exposure

Although social support is known to shape how individuals use emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal, little is known about the specific dimensions of social support that facilitate such use and whether this use is moderated by lifetime stressor exposure. To investigate, we harnessed data from 47 adolescent females who participated in the Psychobiology of Stress and Adolescent Depression (PSY SAD) study to examine how six dimensions of social support related to youths’ use of cognitive reappraisal. In addition, we investigated whether lifetime stressor exposure moderated the association between social support and cognitive reappraisal use in this sample. Results revealed that lifetime stressor exposure moderated the association between social support and cognitive reappraisal. Contrary to hypotheses, however, overall social support and the reassurance of worth dimension of social support were positively associated with reappraisal use, but only for youth exposed to fewer lifetime stressors. Marginally significant associations were also found for the reliable alliance dimension and attachment. In contrast, neither overall social support nor any sub-dimension of social support alone was significantly associated with habitual reappraisal use. Together, these findings highlight the potential importance of fostering social support in youth and in considering youths’ lifetime stressor exposure when studying risk and resilience processes in adolescent females.