Associations Between Depressive, Anxiety and Stress Symptoms, Emotion Dysregulation and Self-Other Processing: Evidence From a Non-Clinical Sample.

The ability to distinguish between self- and other-related mental representations is crucial for navigating complex social environments. This capacity, known as self-other distinction (SOD), plays a fundamental role in social cognition, allowing individuals to understand others' thoughts and emotions without confusing them with their own. Despite growing interest in understanding the role of SOD in clinical populations, little is known about the factors that influence the capacity for SOD in non-clinical samples. Here, we investigated the relative contribution of self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and emotion dysregulation to the capacity for SOD in a sample of adults (N = 164, age range: 18-39 years, Mage = 24.91 years, SD = 5.19) who reported no history of psychiatric or neurological disorders. We assessed the capacity for SOD using the imitation-inhibition task. Participants also provided self-reports of emotional states of depression, anxiety, stress, and emotion dysregulation. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher depressive symptoms were associated with enhanced SOD performance, whereas elevated anxiety and emotion dysregulation were linked to impaired SOD. We also found that stress did not predict SOD. Importantly, the association between SOD and depression deviates from prior literature, as previous studies typically link depression to deficits in social cognition. Our results contribute to the broader literature on SOD by providing evidence that emotional states can facilitate or hinder SOD in a general population sample. These findings may have important practical implications for early identification and therapeutic interventions for individuals who experience self-other processing differences, including some autistic individuals, as well as those with personality disorders.