The Context Matters: Longitudinal Effects of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Across Life Transitions in Men Experiencing Cancer Diagnosis, Retirement, and First-Time Fatherhood.

Objective

To understand how emotion regulation may foster well-being through life transitions, one needs to consider situational factors and the specific strategy applied. Research has rarely investigated how emotion regulation relates to coping across diverse life transitions. Addressing this gap in the literature, the present paper investigated whether emotion regulation strategy use predicted distress during three distinct types of life transitions.

Methods

A total of 305 men provided sociodemographic information and completed questionnaires assessing distress symptoms and cognitive emotion regulation strategy use monthly for a five-month period. Of the 305 men, 98 were first-time fathers, 34 had just received a cancer diagnosis, 81 were retiring, and 92 were control participants.

Results

The results revealed that the prospective associations between emotion regulation strategy use and distress symptoms varied across life transitions. Self-blame was a predictor of increased anxiety in cancer patients (p = 0.012), acceptance was a predictor of increased depression in retirees (p = 0.007), rumination was a predictor of increased anxiety in fathers (p = 0.009), and for the control group, putting into perspective was associated with greater depression (p = 0.043), while catastrophizing were associated with greater anxiety (p = 0.003).

Conclusions

The findings tentatively suggest that the adaptiveness of a given strategy varies depending on the specific life transition being experienced. This is consistent with the "person by situation by strategy" model, suggesting that successful emotion regulation is determined by the specific strategy applied, features of the situation, and person's characteristics.