Integrating emotion beliefs and emotion regulation into the pathway from emotional awareness to affective distress.

= 684) across two time points. Structural equation modeling investigated the predictive associations from emotional awareness (Time 1) to affective distress (Time 2) as serially mediated by emotion beliefs (Time 1) and emotion regulation (Time 2). Results showed that the connections from factors of emotional awareness at Time 1 to affective distress at Time 2 were partially mediated by factors of emotion beliefs and emotion regulation use. Specifically, voluntary attention and involuntary attention indirectly predicted affective distress through emotion beliefs about the controllability and usefulness of negative emotions, and the emotion regulation strategy of cognitive reappraisal and emotion acceptance. These results are the first to integrate these constructs in a single explanatory model and suggest that interventions targeting emotional awareness and emotion beliefs can have downstream effects that improve emotion regulation strategies and foster better psychological well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).