Emotion regulation among individuals classified with and without generalized anxiety disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has been conceptualized as being characterized by the experience of intense emotion, limited understanding of the emotional experience, poor ability to adaptively modulate emotions, and an aversive response to emotions [Mennin, D. S., Turk, C. L., Heimberg, R. G., & Carmin, C. N. (2004). Focusing on the regulation of emotion: a new direction for conceptualizing and treating generalized anxiety disorder. In: M. A. Reinecke, & D. A. Clark (Eds.), Cognitive therapy over the lifespan: theory, research and practice (pp. 60-89). New York: Wiley]. In order to test aspects of this model, participants completed daily diaries and a questionnaire measuring emotion regulation strategies. As hypothesized, relative to controls, individuals classified as having GAD reported more intense daily emotional experiences. Contrary to predictions and previous research, those with GAD did not show poor emotion differentiation and used several emotion regulation strategies more often than control participants. The implications for both the emotion dysregulation model and treatment of GAD are discussed.