The Role of Emotion Regulation in Attentional Biases in Mood-Congruent Information and Sustained Negative Affect in Depression

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined the extent to which emotion regulation and distinct emotion regulation processes mediate the relationship between attentional bias and sustained negative affect in individuals at-risk for depression following a mood induction. Method: To assess this question, previously depressed (n = 40) and never depressed control (n = 44) participants underwent a sad mood induction and mood reactivity and recovery were measured. Sad mood was assessed at four different time points: immediately before and after mood induction, and six and 12 minutes after mood induction. Participants completed an exogenous cuing task to assess for attentional biases and answered questionnaires related to emotion regulation processes and depressive symptomatology. Results: Attentional bias did not significantly predict sustained negative affect after the mood induction and therefore meditational models could not be constructed. Further, there were no significant differences in attentional bias between previously depressed and never depressed individuals. However, cognitive reappraisal significantly predicted mood reactivity and mood recovery after 12 minutes, and executive suppression approached significance in predicting mood recovery after six minutes. Previously depressed and never depressed individuals significantly differed in their reported use of ruminative brooding and reflection. Conclusions: Results suggest that cognitive reappraisal may be particularly important in reducing sustained negative affect in depression and suggest there may be merit in examining the effects of emotion regulation strategies beyond the 12 minute time frame used in this study.