Context Matters, Doesn’t It? The Role of Context in Everyday Emotion Regulation Strategy Use

A common maxim holds that “context is everything”. This perspective transformed the field of emotion-regulation, which evolved from understanding which regulation strategies people use, to understanding how strategy use varies by context (i.e., strategy-situation fit). Theoretical accounts suggest contextual features are crucial in guiding people’s selection of emotion-regulation strategies. However, empirical evidence is isolated in piecemeal studies with inconclusive results. To comprehensively explore context-dependent emotion-regulation, we need data on emotion-regulation across many contexts, at scale. Combining 11 experience-sampling datasets in an integrative analysis (NID=1,720, Nobservations=134,470), we examined how regulation strategy use varies as a function of three theory-derived contextual features—intensity, controllability, and social features (i.e., the presence and closeness of others). We found limited support that context matters for daily emotion-regulation strategy use. Our study provides a well-powered foundational step to test a theory central to emotion-regulation research, and highlights the complexity of capturing strategy-situation fit in daily life.