Relationships between trait emotion dysregulation and emotional experiences in daily life: an experience sampling study

Few studies have examined how trait emotion dysregulation relates to momentary affective experiences and the emotion regulation (ER) strategies people use in daily life. In the current study, 112 college students completed a trait measure of emotion dysregulation and completed experience sampling and end-of-day surveys over a two- to three-week period, asking about their emotional experiences and ER strategy use. Participants completed a total of 3798 experience sampling (in-the-moment) and 995 nightly diary surveys. We examined the top 40% of each participant’s reported instances of negative affect (to capture times when emotions more likely need regulation). Results indicated that a higher level of trait emotion dysregulation was associated with the following in-the-moment responses: (a) higher level of negative affect; (b) greater desire to change emotions; (c) more attempts to regulate emotion; (d) higher relative endorsements of avoidant (e.g. thought suppression) versus engagement (e.g. acceptance) ER strategy use; and (e) lower perceived effectiveness of ER. Further, individuals with a higher (vs. lower) level of trait emotion dysregulation were less able to identify emotions over the course of the day. Findings demonstrate how trait emotion dysregulation may predict emotional experiences and ER in daily life.