RAPID: Coping with COVID-19: Emotion Regulation Strategy Implications for Behavior, Social Outcomes, and Well-Being

Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences - The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is producing an extraordinary set of stressors and demands. The country is facing a life-threatening health crisis and associated economic fallout. That stress is exacerbated by unexpectedness, unpredictability, contradictory and uncertain information, and low personal control. At the same time, people are asked to adopt a series of unfamiliar social distancing and hygiene behaviors in an attempt to ?flatten the curve? of the coronavirus?s spread. Enacting the CDC-recommended behaviors requires both emotion regulation and effortful self-control. Research on emotion regulation ? the ways people attempt to alter or change their own emotions ? distinguishes among several strategies such as looking for a ?silver lining? in upsetting events, reaching out for social support, intellectualizing the problem, and distraction with television and games. The coronavirus pandemic provides a unique set of circumstances in which to examine how reliance on different emotion regulation strategies predicts people?s health-related behaviors and emotional well-being given these unusual circumstances. Findings from this research will inform future public policy recommendations that encourage health-promoting behaviors in stress-related situations.

This research examines the extent to which daily use of 16 distinct emotion regulation strategies predicts adoption/maintenance of CDC-recommended social distancing, hygiene and healthy social engagement behaviors. The research also examines how these emotion regulation strategies influence various prosocial and antisocial behaviors, psychological well-being, and loneliness. For three weeks, participants complete a daily questionnaire measuring their use of specific emotion regulation techniques that day; every seventh day they also answer questions about their behavior (e.g., mask-wearing, avoiding social gatherings, technology-mediated socializing, donating money or supplies, hoarding), as well as loneliness, anxiety, and depression, during the previous week. Data analyses will ask which emotion regulation strategies, or combinations of strategies, predict the most desirable profile of behavioral and well-being outcomes. The research tests important emotion regulation theories and their applicability within the unique coronavirus pandemic context and has the potential to inform future stress-related intervention efforts.

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