Executive Functioning and Negative Affect: an Examination of the Meditational Effects of Emotion Regulation

Recent data highlight maladaptive emotion regulation strategies as a transdiagnostic risk factor. Executive functioning (EF) is also conceptualized as a transdiagnostic mechanism. Drawing these two areas together, data supports the intervening role of rumination, a form of emotion regulation, in the EF clinical symptomatology link. However, research has yet to fully examine various emotion regulation strategies as transdiagnostic mechanisms in youth. The relationship between EF components, emotion regulation strategies, and transdiagnostic negative affect was examined. Set-shifting was associated with general emotion regulation difficulties as well as rumination, worry, and thought suppression. Inhibition was only related to general emotion regulation difficulties and the brooding subtype of rumination. Finally, various forms of emotion regulation were observed to mediate the relationship between set-shifting and negative affect.