EXAMINATION OF ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE COGNITIVE EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES AS TRANSDIAGNOSTIC PROCESSES: ASSOCIATIONS WITH DIVERSE PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies have been reliably associated with psychopathology while lower consistency has been found for adaptive strategies. The extent to which adaptive strategies may function as protective factors was explored by analysing how adaptive and maladaptive strategies relate to a diverse range of symptoms in 370 college students. We used the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. We developed a Portuguese version of CERQ. Different cognitive strategies predicted the nine psychological symptoms tested. At least one maladaptive strategy predicted each symptom dimension, while the same was not true for adaptive strategies. Our study supports: 1) cognitive emotion regulation as a trans diagnostic process that encompasses variability in the strategies underlying specific symptomatology; 2) that lower adaptive strategies sometimes predict psychological symptoms, but that higher maladaptive strategies are more consistently associated with psychopathology; 3) Portuguese CERQ’s validity.