Examining the association between habitual emotion regulation strategies and cardiovascular stress reactivity across...

Poor emotion regulation is associated with cardiovascular disease risk, with altered cardiovascular responses to psychological stress a possible underlying mechanism. However, prior research has predominantly focused on instructed (laboratory-based) emotion regulation; there is limited conclusive research on the relationship between every-day (habitual) emotion regulation and cardiovascular responses to active psychological stress. As such, this study aimed to examine the associations between two common habitual emotion regulation strategies-cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression-and cardiovascular stress responses across three independent laboratory studies, each involving a different active acute psychological stress task. Participants (Study 1: N = 239, 64.9 % female; Study 2: N = 289, 51.9 % female, Study 3: N = 169, 50.9 % female) underwent cardiovascular monitoring during a 10-min baseline and subsequent stress task (Study 1: mental arithmetic task; Study 2: speech task; Study 3: Multisource Interference/Stroop tasks). Participants also completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and ratings of perceived task stressfulness. Cardiovascular reactivity (stress mean - baseline mean) was calculated for systolic/diastolic blood pressure and heart rate for each study. Across all three studies, regression analyses demonstrated no statistically significant linear associations between habitual emotion regulation and cardiovascular reactivity (ps ≥ .10) or self-reported perceived stress (ps ≥ .06), both before and after controlling for demographic covariates. This investigation furthers our understanding of how habitual emotion regulation strategies may-or may not-impact cardiovascular stress responses, thus providing valuable insights into the complex relationship between emotion regulation and long-term cardiovascular health.