Situation Covariation and Goal Adaptiveness? The Promoting Effect of Cognitive Flexibility on Emotion Regulation in Depression

Cognitive inflexibility as a generalized characteristic of depression has been closely implicated in maladaptive coping with changing situations and goals in daily life. The association between cognitive flexibility and depression can be elucidated by situation covariation and goal adaptiveness of emotion regulation flexibility (ERF), which facilitates adaptive responses to changing environments. However, little is known about the contribution of cognitive flexibility to emotion regulation in depression under changing situations and goals. To address this gap, we performed three experiments to assess situation covariation and goal adaptiveness of ERF, and we further examined the contribution of situation covariation and goal adaptiveness to the association between cognitive inflexibility and depression. The results of Experiments 1 (N = 120) and 2 (N = 117) showed a significantly negative correlation between cognitive flexibility and goal adaptiveness (but not situation covariation) of ERF. Further mediation analysis revealed the contribution of goal adaptiveness scores to the relationship between cognitive flexibility and depression. In Experiment 3 (N = 93), we performed a 14-day training of cognitive flexibility and observed that the training increased goal adaptiveness, but not situation covariation, of ERF and reduced symptoms of depression. Furthermore, the improvement of goal adaptiveness scores significantly mediated the effect of cognitive flexibility on depressive remission. In sum, these findings identified a vital involvement of goal adaptiveness of ERF in the effect of cognitive flexibility on depression.