Loneliness and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic: the moderating role of emotion regulation

Loneliness and psychological distress have become a growing public issue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have examined the association between loneliness and psychological distress, and how to moderate this association still was unknown. We aimed to examine the relationship between loneliness and psychological distress and the moderating role of emotion regulation. A total of 944 participants were invited to complete the measurement of the 6-item De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale, the 20-item self-report questionnaire (SRQ-20), and the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Linear mixed-effects regressions revealed that both emotional (b = 0.26, p < 0.001) and social loneliness (b = 0.28, p < 0.001) was positively associated with psychological distress. Loneliness with high cognitive reappraisal was negatively associated with psychological distress (emotional loneliness: b = − 0.07, p = 0.02, social loneliness: b = − 0.17, p < 0.001). However, loneliness with high expressive suppression was positively associated with psychological distress ((emotional loneliness: b = 0.07, p = 0.03, social loneliness: b = 0.07, p = 0.04). We conclude that an adaptive emotion regulation strategy may be an effective way for individuals with loneliness in reducing psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.