Examining the associations between trauma intrusions, emotion regulation, and affect among European Australian and Chinese Australian trauma survivors using ecological momentary assessment.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the associations between momentary intrusive memories, emotion regulation, and affect among Chinese Australian and European Australian trauma survivors.

METHOD: Trauma survivors (46 European Australians, 49 Chinese Australians) completed momentary measures of intrusions, emotion regulation, and positive and negative affect using an ecological momentary assessment procedure.

RESULTS

First, presence of intrusions was associated with greater use of emotion suppression, rumination, reappraisal, problem solving, and worry. Second, cultural group moderated the associations between intrusions and both worry and rumination, with these associations being stronger for the European Australian group than the Chinese Australian group. Third, momentary intrusions moderated the negative associations between (a) worry and positive affect and (b) reappraisal and negative affect; these associations were stronger for those who had experienced an intrusion. Finally, momentary intrusions and cultural group simultaneously moderated the association between (a) reappraisal and positive affect and (b) emotion suppression and negative affect.

CONCLUSION

Momentary intrusions were associated with diverse emotion regulation strategy use and moderated associations between emotion regulation strategy use and affect. Importantly, cultural group moderated some of these associations, suggesting the use of emotion regulation strategies is not universal. The findings highlight the importance of considering cultural context in trauma treatment and a need for further research in this area. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).