Reading as an Emotion Regulation Strategy: A Meta-Analytic Study on Mitigating the Impact of Depressive Affect

Against the backdrop of accelerating modern life and increasingly prominent mental health problems, exploring low-cost and scalable emotion regulation strategies is of great significance. Reading, as a fundamental cognitive activity, has been increasingly recognized for its potential value in emotion regulation; however, existing research findings remain fragmented and lack systematic integration. Therefore, this study employs a meta-analytic approach to systematically examine the effect of reading on depressive symptoms and its stability. This study retrieved empirical studies published between 2011 and 2026 from PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and ProQuest databases. Based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 10 independent studies were included, yielding 11 effect sizes. Statistical analyses were conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA 3.7), with correlation coefficients as the effect size metric. Heterogeneity tests, sensitivity analyses, and publication bias assessments were also performed.