Fluctuations in Emotion Regulation as a Mechanism Linking Stress and Internalizing Psychopathology among Adolescents: An Intensive Longitudinal Study

Stressful life events (SLEs) are tightly coupled with the emergence of anxiety and depression symptoms among adolescents, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. We investigated within-person fluctuations in emotion regulation as a mechanism linking SLEs and internalizing psychopathology in an intensive longitudinal study. We examined how monthly fluctuations in SLEs were related to engagement in three emotion regulation strategies—acceptance, reappraisal, and rumination—and whether these strategies were associated with changes in internalizing symptoms in adolescents followed for one year (N=30; n=355 monthly observations). Bayesian hierarchical models revealed that on months when adolescents experienced more SLEs than was typical for them, they also engaged in more rumination, which, in turn, was associated with higher anxiety and depression symptoms and mediated the prospective relationship between SLEs and internalizing symptoms. In contrast, greater use of acceptance and reappraisal moderated the association between stressors and internalizing symptoms, resulting in stronger links between SLEs and symptoms. These results suggest that emotion regulation strategies play different roles in the stress-psychopathology relationship. Understanding how changes in emotion regulation contribute to increases in psychopathology following experiences of stress may provide novel targets for interventions aimed at reducing stress-related psychopathology.