The Moderating Role of Emotional Regulation Regarding the Predictive Relationship Between Two Forms of Stress and Depressive Symptoms Among a College Sample

It has long been shown that varying types of stress can predict and precipitate the onset of a depressive episode. Much research has illustrated that there is an increased frequency and severity of premorbid stressors in depressed individuals as compared with controls (Hammen, 2005). However, not all individuals who experience stressful life events, irrespective of how severe they may be, experience psychopathological symptomology (Monroe & Simons, 1991). It is for this reason that the diathesis-stress model, in which certain factors, such as premorbid vulnerabilities, interact with stress and trigger depressive symptoms, has been studied and expanded upon extensively. Contrary to the earlier biological perspective of the model, researchers are increasingly recognizing psychological factors such as cognitive and behavioral styles and personality traits, as diatheses (Monroe & Simons, 1991). While cognitive, behavioral and personality factors may be important, few investigators have studied the moderating role of emotional regulation. In Gross and Munoz's (1995) model of emotion, emotions are a response to, or interpretation of, events or intrapsychic processes. Furthermore, Gross (1998) described emotion regulation as "the processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions." Not surprisingly, it has been shown that there are many negative implications regarding the inability to successfully regulate emotions such as the increased risk for developing depression. Whereas there is growing literature on the effects of emotion dysregulation on depression, there has been little research regarding how emotion regulatory processes fit into the stress-depression relationship. The aim of this study is to test whether emotion regulatory styles serve to moderate stress in predicting depressive symptoms. More specifically, 160 undergraduate students were recruited to complete the following measures: Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression-10, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Survey of Recent Life Experiences. In analyzing the data, two hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to test the hypotheses that two measures of stress, perceived stress and experienced life stress will each be moderated by emotion regulation. In the present study, experience life stress (as measured by the SRLE) was significantly moderated by emotion regulation while perceived stress was not. This suggests that stress measurements differentially interact with emotion regulation to predict depressive symptoms.M.S., Psychology -- Drexel University, 201