The Effects of Experimentally Induced Rumination, Positive Reappraisal, Acceptance, and Distancing When Thinking About a Stressful Event on Affect States in Adolescents

Abstract

The current study compares the effects of experimentally induced rumination, positive reappraisal, distancing, and acceptance on affect states in adolescents aged 13–18. Participants (N = 160) were instructed to think about a recent stressful event. Next, they received specific instructions on how to think about that event in each condition. Manipulation checks revealed that the manipulations were successful, except for acceptance. The two most reported events were “a fight” and “death of loved one”. Results showed that positive reappraisal (i.e., thinking about the benefits and personal growth) caused a significantly larger increase in positive affect and decrease in negative affect compared to rumination, distancing, and acceptance. Current findings implicate that positive reappraisal seems an adequate coping strategy in the short-term, and therefore could be applied in interventions for youth experiencing difficulties managing negative affect. Future research should focus on long-term effects of these cognitive strategies and on more intensive training of acceptance.

A Comparison of the Effects of Different Perspectives in Terms of Reappraisal Subtypes on Affect: Positive Reappraisal and Putting into Perspective

“…First, research that includes the other subtypes and considers the context of emotion regulation is necessary. Recent research has also focused on the comparison of other reappraisal subtypes, such as acceptance and distancing (e.g., Kross, Duckworth, Ayduk, Tsukayama, & Mischel, 2011;Rood et al, 2012).…”

“…Rood et al, 2012). They imagined the event as a movie, and remembered the feelings and sensations related to the event until they could see the event vividly and they felt like they were experiencing the event again.…”

“…The instruction for the two reappraisal subtypes was based on items from the Japanese version of the CERQ (Sakakibara, 2015) and the instruction of Rood et al (2012). Participants were instructed to think about their experience again as instructed.…”

“…Rood et al, 2012;Sakakibara, 2015). An example of an item corresponding to positive reappraisal is "I thought about the positive things that I could get out of the event/situation."…”

“…It is also suggested that positive reappraisal is effective for enhancing positive emotion. In an experiment that examined the effect of cognitive strategies on positive and negative affect after a stress induction task, a positive reappraisal group showed a significant increase in their positive affect and a decrease in their negative affect compared with other cognitive strategy groups (i.e., rumination, acceptance, and distancing) (Rood, Roelofs, Bögels, & Arntz, 2012).…”