The Impact of Emotional Impulsivity on Emotion Regulation and Internalizing Disorders: Competing Latent Path Models

Emotion regulation has been identified as a transdiagnostic risk factor in internalizing disorders. Previous literature has attempted to classify regulatory strategies by their temporal and functional characteristics to determine how to best implement emotion regulation interventions. However, these frameworks occasionally conflict, particularly in the presence of factors impacting regulatory strategy selection such as emotional impulsivity. This project examined competing theoretical models of emotion regulation strategy classification as related to internalizing psychopathology as well as explore the association between emotional impulsivity, regulatory classification and internalizing psychopathology. A community sample of 783 adults recruited through Amazon MTurk completed online questionnaires related to emotional impulsivity, emotion regulation strategy use, and symptoms of internalizing psychopathology. Competing models of functional and temporal emotion regulation latent factor classifications were assessed using a structural equation modeling framework as they relate to internalizing psychopathology. Further, the differential direct and indirect effects of emotional impulsivity on each model were assessed using path analysis with robust maximum likelihood estimation. Results indicated that emotional impulsivity was significantly positively related to internalizing psychopathology, adaptive, maladaptive, antecedent-focused, and response-focused regulation. Maladaptive and response-focused emotion regulation were also positively associated with internalizing psychopathology. Indirect effects of emotional impulsivity on internalizing psychopathology were also found through maladaptive and response-focused emotion regulation. Direct effects of emotional impulsivity on internalizing psychopathology remained after accounting for the total effects of emotion regulation. Model comparison indices indicated that a temporal classification of emotion regulation had better model fit than a functional classification when included in structural analysis models with and without emotional impulsivity included in the model. Findings from this study provide critical information regarding models currently used to assess emotion regulation and establish specific targets for intervention for internalizing disorders. Distinguishing the connections between emotional impulsivity, and different types of emotion regulation as they relate to distressing symptoms may also assist with the development of individualized treatment plans.