Effectiveness of an Emotion Regulation Intervention Versus an Active Control on Daily Well-Being and Cognitive Reappraisal: An Experience Sampling Randomized Controlled Trial

This study examined whether an emotion regulation toolkit of reappraisal, mindfulness, and savoring exercises could promote well-being and train cognitive reappraisal skill over and above an active control toolkit. University students were randomly assigned to the well-being toolkit intervention (n = 39), or one of two active control conditions that involved cognitive activity exercises (breathing and memory recall exercises) found to be ineffective in promoting well-being over and above intervention conditions in past research. The well-being toolkit control (n = 41) was presented to participants as an ostensible "Mental Wellbeing Toolkit" to increase expectancy beliefs. The cognitive toolkit control (n = 39) included the same cognitive activity exercises as the well-being toolkit control, but was presented to participants as a neutral "Cognitive Activity Toolkit." Participants were instructed to complete 10 days of surveys and practice at least one exercise from their toolkit per day. Results from 1,133 data points showed declines across all conditions in stress and negative affect and increases in positive affect over 10 days. This finding points to a potential beneficial effect of intentionally engaging in activities involving some form of self-referential reflection-the underlying commonality across activities in all conditions-irrespective of whether individuals are instructed to engage in emotion regulation or not. However, compared with both control conditions, the intervention led to sharper growth in daily cognitive reappraisal over 10 days of practice, suggesting the intervention's advantage of developing the foundational emotion regulation strategy of cognitive reappraisal.