Effectiveness of an Ecological Momentary Emotion Regulation Intervention

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Valence-Specific Ecological Momentary Intervention: The ecological momentary intervention is designed to enhance participants ability to select and effectively implement emotion regulation strategies fitting to the valence of their current emotions. Specifically, the intervention instructs participants to use the strategy of savoring to amplify their positive emotions, fostering an appreciation for the present moment. Conversely, for the attenuation of negative emotions, the intervention advocates to use the strategy of reappraisal, encouraging participants to reinterpret adverse situations in a more positive or neutral way, thus reducing their emotional impact. This targeted approach ensures that the emotion regulation strategies are not only effective but also contextually appropriate.

Study summary

This two-armed randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the effectiveness of an emotion regulation intervention in individuals with and without depressive disorders. The study encompasses participants diagnosed with mild to moderate major depression or persistent depressive disorder and healthy controls without a current depressive disorder.

Participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group, receiving a valence-specific emotion regulation intervention in daily life, or a monitoring-only control group. The valence-specific intervention supports the implementation of different emotion regulation strategies based on whether a person is experiencing mainly positive or negative emotions. In contrast, participants in the control group will solely monitor their positive and negative emotions and the strategies used to regulate them.

Outcome measures include emotion regulation ability, self-efficacy, and strategy use, depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect, and emotion beliefs (controllability, usefulness).

A second aim of the study is to compare beliefs about positive emotions and strategies to regulate them between individuals with and without current depressive disorders. Furthermore, the investigators aim to examine why individuals might choose unfavorable emotion regulation strategies even when feeling good. Therefore, another research question is, how emotion beliefs might explain emotion regulation strategy choice.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Emotion Regulation Ability (Positive, Negative Emotions) — 0 weeks, 3 weeks
  The Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI; Preece al., 2021) consists of 32 items, rated on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = neither agree nor disagree, 7 = strongly agree) and measures people's ability to regulate their positive and negative emotions. Two different composite scores can be computed to indicate positive and negative emotion regulation ability (Min = 16, Max = 112 for each score), with higher scores indicating a higher level of difficulty regulating positive or negative emotions.
• Emotion Regulation Self-Efficacy for Positive and Negative Emotions — 0 weeks, 3 weeks
  The German version of the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy-Revised (RESE-R) Scale (adapted from Caprara et al., 2008) consists of 10 items, rated on a 5-point scale (1 = not at all well to 5 = very well). The scale assesses self-efficacy in expressing positive emotions (4 items, Min = 1, Max = 5) and in managing negative emotions (despondency/distress: 3 Items, anger/irritation: 3 items, Min = 1, Max = 5), with higher scores indicating higher self-efficacy beliefs.

Trial sites (1)

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