Perceived social support moderates the association between emotion regulation and psychological distress: a cross-sectional study among Japanese adults

Previous studies have evaluated the adaptiveness of emotion regulation strategies as related to various outcomes; however, most studies have focused on the effects of intrapersonal strategies, independent of interpersonal contextual factors. The present study examined the moderating effects of perceived social support on the association between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological distress. Data were cross-sectional from Internet survey panels. The survey targeted Japanese adults aged 20 to 79 years. The final analysis included data from 1200 participants. Results of regression analyses showed that higher levels of social support weaken the associations of both adaptive and maladaptive strategies with psychological distress. These results suggest that perceived availability of support may attenuate the negative effects of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, although they may also weaken the positive effects of adaptive strategies. Therefore, psychological interventions should not only target individuals' emotion regulation strategies but also consider one's available social resources to promote better mental health.