State and Trait Emotion Regulation Diversity in Social Anxiety

Emotion regulation (ER) diversity, defined as the variety, frequency, and evenness of ER strategies used, may predict social anxiety (SA) severity. In a sample of individuals with high (n=113) or low (n=42) SA severity, we tested whether four trait ER diversity metrics predicted group membership. We generalized existing trait ER diversity calculations to repeated-measures data to test if state-level metrics (using two weeks of EMA data) predicted SA severity within the higher severity group. As hypothesized (osf.io/xadyp), higher trait ER diversity within avoidance-oriented strategies predicted greater likelihood of belonging to the higher severity group. At the state-level, higher diversity across all ER strategies, and within and between avoidance- and approach-oriented strategies, predicted higher SA severity (but only after controlling for number of submitted EMAs). Only diversity within avoidance-oriented strategies was significantly correlated across trait and state levels. Findings suggest that high avoidance-oriented ER diversity may co-occur with higher SA severity.