Interpersonal emotion regulation and mental health among cancer survivors: A systematic review

Cancer and its treatment can cause significant emotional distress, adversely affecting mental health. Interpersonal emotion regulation, the process by which individuals regulate emotions through social interactions, plays a critical role in cancer survivorship. This study systematically reviews evidence on the associations between interpersonal emotion regulation and mental health outcomes among cancer survivors, along with the theoretical models guiding this research.

A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, yielding 6928 records. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 86 studies involving 67,592 cancer survivors were included. Various aspects of interpersonal emotion regulation (e.g., emotional support, social constraints, affectionate support) and mental health indicators (e.g., depression, anxiety, quality of life) were evaluated. Quality assessments and data synthesis were performed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines.

Interpersonal emotion regulation was consistently associated with mental health outcomes. Emotional support, affectionate support, and dyadic coping showed small-to-moderate positive associations with improved mental health (e.g., reduced depression, anxiety, and distress, and enhanced quality of life). Conversely, social constraints and ambivalence over emotional expression were negatively associated with mental health. Less than one-third of studies referenced theoretical models, the most frequent being the social-cognitive processing model and the stress-buffering hypothesis.

Interpersonal emotion regulation significantly influences mental health among cancer survivors, with distinct strategies yielding varying impacts. Future research should integrate theoretical frameworks and longitudinal designs to better elucidate causal mechanisms and optimize interventions targeting interpersonal dynamics in survivorship care.