Individual Differences in Religious Emotion Regulation in Daily Life

This study examined how people use religion to regulate their emotions in daily life. The primary aim was to test how daily use of religious strategies predicts emotional well-being. The exploratory aim was to test how religious strategies are linked to religion-neutral strategies. A community sample of 198 Egyptian adults completed a trait religiosity measure and 10 daily assessments of religious strategies, religion-neutral strategies, and emotional well-being. Overall, on days when people used more positive religious strategies, they reported greater positive emotion and lower negative emotion. Conversely, on days when people used more negative religious strategies, they reported lower positive emotion and greater negative emotion. These findings held when controlling for religion-neutral strategies and trait religiosity. Meanwhile, exploratory analyses revealed that on days when people used more positive religious strategies, they were more likely to use several strategies (e.g., reappraisal, social sharing) and less likely to use suppression. However, on days when people used more negative religious strategies, they were only less likely to use various strategies (e.g., social sharing, acceptance). These results replicate and extend prior research by suggesting that positive and negative religious strategies are also linked to distinct well-being outcomes in daily life, and that religious strategies have predictive value above religion-neutral strategies. They also suggest that positive religious strategies may be linked to using a greater breadth of religion-neutral strategies.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-025-00343-8.