Maladaptive daydreaming as emotion regulation strategy: exploring the association with emotion regulation, psychological symptoms, and negative problem-solving orientation

Abstract Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) is a dysfunctional mental activity characterized by an excessive immersion in fantasy, whose function is being increasingly discussed and investigated. Accordingly, this study aims to examine its function as an emotion regulation strategy among MDers by evaluating the pattern of associations among MD, emotion regulation (ER) difficulties, anxiety, depression, stress symptoms, and negative problem-solving orientation. The mediating role of MD level in the association between difficulties in ER and both the psychological distress variables and negative problem-solving orientation was evaluated. N = 252 MDers, aged 18–70 years (M age = 30.63, SD = 11.40, 84.1% females), participated in the study and completed self-report measures. Some unexpected results emerged: among difficulties in ER’s dimensions, only lack of emotional self-awareness negatively and significantly associated with all symptom variables; solely difficulty pursuing goals when experiencing negative emotions and reduced trust in one’s capacity to self-regulate positively and significantly correlated with MD. MD negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, and negative problem-solving orientation. Three mediation models showed the mediating role of MD in reducing the negative effect of difficulty pursuing goals when experiencing negative emotions on both anxiety and negative problem-solving orientation and of trust in one’s capacity to self-regulate on negative problem-solving orientation. Overall, findings seem to point to functional peculiarities among MDers and support the view of MD as an emotion regulation strategy allowing the management and reduction of negative emotions and negative perceptions of problem situations. Notwithstanding, further research evaluating the potential moderating role of MD-specific fantasies is warranted. Unexpected findings are discussed.