Interactions Between Emotion Regulation and Mental Health

Reappraisal and suppression are among the most commonly studied emotion regulation strategies and refer to cognitive reframing of emotional events (reappraisal) as opposed to behavioral inhibition of emotional reactions (suppression). This selective review examines relationships between trait-expressions of these two emotion regulation styles and psychopathology as well as links with mental health. Findings generally suggest a beneficial role of reappraisal and a maladaptive role of suppression. However, exaggerations of emotion regulation-mental health links are possible as both are subject to reporting biases. Ideally, self-reported emotion regulation styles should be assessed together with behavioral and physiological measures of emotional responding and actual emotion regulation success, to delineate their link to mental health.