Psychometric properties and utility of the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire (RPA) in a sample of people with bipolar disorder

Abstract

Objectives To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Responses to Positive Affect (RPA) questionnaire in a sample of persons with bipolar disorder (BD). Method Cross‐sectional survey study with 107 persons with BD. The original 3‐factor model of the RPA was compared with a 2‐factor model. Construct validity was determined with measures of well‐being, personal recovery, social role participation, and psychopathology and incremental validity was evaluated. Results The fit of the 3‐factor model was acceptable for most fit indices. Subscores of the RPA revealed a significant relationship with aspects of well‐being, personal recovery, and psychopathology. Dampening and self‐focused positive rumination explained additional variance in personal recovery above and beyond well‐being. Conclusions The RPA is an internally consistent and valid tool to assess positive emotion regulation processes in persons with BD. Specifically, the processes of dampening and emotion‐focused positive rumination seem to play an important role in BD.

Associations of trait positive emotion regulation with everyday emotions: An experience sampling approach

“…In line with previous studies on positive rumination (e.g. Feldman et al, 2008;Kraiss et al, 2019;Raes et al, 2009), the current study also found that trait emotion-focused and self-focused positive rumination were associated with positive emotions during positive events. Our findings suggest that trait positive rumination is effective for up-regulating everyday positive emotions.…”

“…An individual's trait positive rumination has important implications for the development of psychological disorders (Gilbert, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Gruber, 2013;Kraiss et al, 2019). Previous studies have shown that trait positive rumination was inversely associated with depressive symptoms (Feldman et al, 2008;Raes, Daems, Feldman, Johnson, & Van Gucht, 2009;Young, Sandman, & Craske, 2019).…”

“…A handful of recent cross-sectional studies have reported the associations of savoring and positive rumination with psychological well-being (Cheung et al, 2019;Kiken et al, 2017;Kraiss et al, 2019;Young et al, 2019). Although some studies have adopted longitudinal or experimental designs (Gomez-Baya et al, 2018;Olofsson et al, 2016;Rueschkamp et al, 2018), they did not contextualise the association of savoring and positive rumination with emotions within the daily events (i.e.…”

“…Perceived capability of savoring has been shown to be associated with psychological well-being among individuals who reported fewer positive experiences (Jose et al, 2012;Rueschkamp et al, 2018). Moreover, previous studies have also proposed that higher levels of trait positive rumination predicted lower psychological distress and higher psychological well-being (Bijttebier et al, 2012;Kraiss et al, 2019;Raes, Smets, Nelis, & Schoofs, 2012;Young et al, 2019). Our results extend these previous findings by providing evidence that higher levels of capability of savoring through reminiscence and trait emotion-focused positive rumination could amplify the association between valence ratings of positive events and positive emotions in everyday life.…”

Exploring factors associated with personal recovery in bipolar disorder

“…Data from two studies were combined for the current study. The first dataset ( n = 119) comes from an online cross‐sectional survey study conducted between April and July 2018 (Kraiss, ten Klooster, et al, 2019 ). The second dataset ( n = 90) was collected between September 2018 and March 2020 for the baseline assessment of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effectiveness of a psychological intervention for patients with BD (Kraiss et al, 2018 ).…”