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Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Social Support and Their Effects on Depressive Symptoms in Korean Emerging Adults

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Abstract

Background

Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) involves the use of strategies by individuals to regulate their emotions through interactions with others. Research has shown that the IER is correlated with psychological symptoms and well-being. However, few studies have investigated the longitudinal relationships between IER and its related constructs.

Methods

A cross-lagged panel design was used to examine the reciprocal relationship between IER strategies and perceived social support and their impact on depressive symptoms. Data were collected from 213 emerging Korean adults (136 females; Mage = 25.4), categorized as students, job-seekers, or workers, on three occasions with six-month intervals.

Results

Enhancing positive affect, an upregulation strategy for positive emotions, predicted an increased perception of social support and, consequently, a reduction in depressive symptoms. Soothing strategies were directly associated with increased depressive symptoms. Other IER strategies aimed at downregulating negative emotions did not have any significant effect on the perception of social support or depressive symptoms. Furthermore, perceived social support did not predict longitudinal changes in the tendency to use IER strategies.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that IER strategies, especially those that focus on upregulating positive emotions, may enhance the perception of social support. This offers a promising avenue for designing interventions to support emerging adults facing difficulties in a variety of social and relational transitions.

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Data will be provided upon the request to the corresponding author.

References

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Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2023S1A5A2A01074319), and the Korea University Grant.

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Authors

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Correspondence to Sang Min Lee.

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Conflict of interest 

Hyunmo Seong,· Hajin Lim, Gi‑Eun Jang, Gippeum Park, Jieun Kang, and Sang Min Lee declare no conflicts of interest.

Informed Consent

The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university affiliated with the corresponding author and there was no violation of human rights and safety during the research procedure. Informed consent was obtained from all individual subjects participating in the study.

Animal rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Appendix

Appendix

See  Table 3.

Table 3 Results of the confirmatory factor analyses for the Korean version of IERQ

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Seong, H., Lim, H., Jang, GE. et al. Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Social Support and Their Effects on Depressive Symptoms in Korean Emerging Adults. Cogn Ther Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-024-10470-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-024-10470-4

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