Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and trait anger as predictors of depression severity.

BACKGROUND

According to empirical evidence, trait anger and emotion regulation strategies are associated with depression severity. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of trait anger and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in explaining the variance of depressive symptoms severity.

METHODS

Two hundred three participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder completed measures of depression, trait anger, depressive rumination, anger rumination and experiential avoidance. Path analysis using Mplus was employed for data analysis.

RESULTS

Trait anger and depressive rumination were significant predictors of the level of depressive symptomatology, while experiential avoidance and anger rumination did not predict the level of depressive symptoms severity.

CONCLUSION

Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and trait anger seem to be associated with the level of depressive symptoms, and, as such, should also be investigated when working with depressive symptomatology.