Time and Situation in Emotion Regulation

Daily context is widely recognized as shaping emotion regulation (ER) strategy use, yet empirical work has largely focused on situational context, with limited evidence on temporal context, despite the fact that cognitive and affective resources relevant to ER fluctuate systematically across the day. The present study used ecological momentary assessment to examine how temporal rhythms and situational contexts shape ER strategy use and whether their contributions are independent. Strategies were organized into approach- and avoidance-oriented orientations (e.g., reappraisal vs. distraction) to capture theoretically meaningful differences in regulatory goals and cognitive demands. Over 21 days, 155 adults completed 4 daily prompts assessing situations and ER strategy use (12,011 observations). Multilevel models indicated that participants endorsed fewer approach- and avoidance-oriented ER strategies as the day progressed and on weekends than on weekdays. Multilevel latent profile analyses identified four situational profiles (Positivity-engagement, Low-engagement, Negativity-engagement, and Structured-engagement contexts) that were associated with ER strategy use. Approach-oriented strategies were most frequent in Structured-engagement contexts, although their difference from Negativity-engagement contexts depended on savoring. Avoidance-oriented strategies were used more in Negativity-engagement and Low-engagement contexts and less in Positivity-engagement contexts than in Structured-engagement contexts, a pattern that held across alternative strategy groupings in sensitivity analyses. Accounting for situational context improved model fit and attenuated the temporal differences by 45% to 79%, indicating substantial overlap between temporal patterning and differences in the situations encountered across the day, while a smaller evening decline in approach-oriented strategies remained after accounting for situational context. These findings provide initial evidence to ground context-sensitive models of ER flexibility and suggest temporal and situational windows for future research on ER-focused intervention.