(PS2-A2) Through the Good Times and Bad: Positive and Negative Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Self-injurious Thoughts and Behaviors

Background: Theory and research strongly indicate difficulties regulating negative emotions to be a central factor in self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs; Gratz, 2007; Law et al., 2015), with interpersonal variables also playing a crucial role (Muehlenkamp et al., 2013; Van Orden et al., 2010). Processes bridging emotion regulation and interpersonally relevant variables in conferring risk for SITBs, however, have received less attention. Interpersonal emotion regulation, or “recruiting social resources to manage emotions,” might be one such process (Williams et al., 2018). Recent work suggests interpersonal problem-solving differences in individuals with a history of SITBs (Ammerman et al., 2021; Park et al., 2021), and deficiencies in social support (possibly by proxy of difficulties recruiting social resources) and in expressing emotion to others have been found to relate to SITBs (Muehlenkamp et al., 2013; Mackin et al., 2017; Jacobson et al., 2015). Reassurance-seeking and venting (maladaptive interpersonal regulation strategies) have also been associated with SITBs (possibly by failure of securing others’ support; Dixon-Gordon et al., 2018; Baer et al., 2022). Taken together, these findings suggest interpersonal support when faced with negative emotions to be protective against SITBs. A paucity of research, however, exists concerning interpersonal regulation of positive emotions (despite evidence relating difficulties experiencing positive emotions to SITBs; Raudales et al., 2021). Thus, the present study attempts to examine the interactive influence of positive and negative interpersonal emotion regulation on the association between emotion dysregulation and SITBs, in a population suffering from a high prevalence of SITBs (college students; Mortier et al., 2017).

Method: Students from two Midwestern universities will be surveyed online and compensated with course credit as part of a larger study examining psychosocial predictors of SITBs in trauma-exposed students. Emotion dysregulation will be measured using the DERS-16 (Bjureburg et al., 2016; Gratz & Roemer, 2003), and positive and negative interpersonal emotion regulation will be measured using the IRQ (Williams et al., 2018). NSSI history will be measured using ISAS (Klonsky & Olino, 2008), and suicidal thoughts and behaviors will be measured using items from the SITBI (Nock et al., 2007).

Analysis Plan: Lifetime presence of SITBs will be dichotomized into two groups (absence, presence). Group differences on main study variables and demographic characteristics will be examined using independent samples t-tests or chi-square tests of independence, with significant variables used as covariates in subsequent analyses. Binomial logistic regression analyses will be conducted using emotion dysregulation, interpersonal regulation, and their interaction as predictors of SITBs (one model per each of 4 subscales of the IRQ – negative tendency, positive tendency, negative efficacy, positive efficacy), with each of the three SITBs as the dependent variable. Theoretical, empirical, and clinical implications of our findings will be discussed.