The Roles of Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation on Psychological Distress: A Longitudinal Panel Study

ABSTRACT The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that interpersonal emotion regulation leads to increased difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation, which in turn, leads to general psychological distress utilizing a three‐wave cross‐lagged panel design. Undergraduate students rated self‐report measurements of interpersonal emotion regulation, difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation, and psychological distress at baseline (T1, N = 369) and two follow‐up waves (T2 and T3), each separated by 3 months. The results indicated that although some lagged correlations between interpersonal emotion regulation strategies and difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation were significant, interpersonal emotion regulation strategies did not prospectively predict difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation. Notably, difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation significantly predicted psychological distress in subsequent waves. Additionally, psychological distress at T1 predicted distress at T3 through difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation at T2. This study is significant as it is the first to test the interpersonal emotion regulation model in a longitudinal design. However, the hypothesized pathway where interpersonal emotion regulation contributes to psychological distress through difficulties in intrapersonal emotion regulation, was not supported.