Intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation and adjustment symptoms in couples: The role of co-brooding and co-reappraisal

Reappraisal and co-reappraisal

Reappraisal is defined as a change in the appraisal of a situation in order to decrease its negative emotional impact [19]. It is one of the most researched adaptive coping strategies that has adaptive effects on the regulation of negative emotions if experimentally induced [20] as well as when assessed by self report in the context of mental health [21, 22]. The notion that changing one’s view on an issue that elicits emotion not only happens in introspective reflection but tends to happen in conversation with an interaction partner is plausible. This is in line with Rime’s [1] notion that the motives behind social sharing, that is, the sharing of emotional content with others, are clarification, cognitive restructuring, and meaning finding. Co-reappraisal is defined as changing a situation’s meaning in a way that alters its emotional impact in interaction (see [14]. Accordingly, co-reappraisal in this study is measured as the intent to do so in interactions with the romantic partner. In general, as interactive emotion regulation affects the mental and social realities of the regulating individual, it is supposed to be particularly broad in its effects.

Ruminative brooding and co-brooding

Rumination is a maladaptive coping strategy and a risk factor for depression [23] that has been proven to be associated with a wide array of negative outcomes [24]. Recently, it has been suggested that different ruminative components can be separated: reflection has been defined as an adaptive component of negative self-focus, as opposed to the maladaptive component which has been labeled “ruminative brooding” [25]. While adaptive ruminative reflection is characterized by purposefully engaging in problem solving-oriented cognitive-affective processing, ruminative brooding is the passive comparison of one’s current situation with some unachieved standards characterized by cognitive superficiality and avoidance [26].

The notion that rumination might happen in interactions reflecting a repetitive focus on negative content in conversations with others who are close has been introduced as co-rumination [27]. Co-rumination is a risk factor for the onset of a depressive episode in adolescence [28]. Recently, the parallel factor structure of co-rumination to intrapersonal rumination has been demonstrated in a study assessing co-rumination in children; the factors co-brooding and co-reflection were detected reassembling the findings of a brooding and a reflection factor in intrapersonal rumination [29]. In the current study, co-brooding is referred to as the merely maladaptive component of co-rumination. Parallel to brooding, co-brooding is characterized by a passive repetitive focus on negative content that is unwanted, rigid and perceived as unpleasant. It lacks the possibility to reflect upon the content, process it in a constructive way, and possibly reappraise it. Interactive co-brooding in communication is supposed to be associated with the difficulty of the conversation partner to react in a responsive way. Thus, instead of perceiving responsiveness—being understood, cared for, and validated [30]—the co-brooding person might feel less understood and less supported, the relationship quality suffers. Thus, even though it is also a way of sharing negative content, it can be distinguished from adaptive forms of social sharing which are supposed to lead to better relationship quality and less loneliness after an unpleasant situation [1]. Co-rumination has been shown to be an independent risk factor predicting depression above and beyond intrapersonal rumination as a coping style [28]. Accordingly, co-brooding is thought to be an interactive form of brooding that is distinct from intrapersonal brooding.

Aim of the study

The socio-interpersonal perspective on stress-response suggests that interpersonal processes are of particular importance. The aim of the study was to investigate interpersonal emotion regulation as a fundamental pathway through which interpersonal processes might shape adjustment. It was predicted that genuine interpersonal emotion regulation strategies co-reappraisal and co-brooding are associated with adjustment disorder symptoms after a major stressor. Furthermore, it was expected that co-brooding and co-reappraisal in couples predict symptoms of adjustment disorder above and beyond the established intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies of brooding and reappraisal. The underlying assumption is that the interpersonal strategies are not mere reflections of the known intrapersonal regulation attempts but do independently predict outcome. As interpersonal processes happen in interaction not only the individual at risk for adjustment disorder was included in the models, but also the view of his or her romantic partners. Therefore, a dyadic framework assessing self-and partner-reports of interpersonal emotion regulation was applied following a state of the art framework of dyadic data analysis [31].

Adjustment disorder new module

The ADNM questionnaire [33] assesses adjustment disorder symptoms following the stress–response concept of adjustment disorder, which will be reassembled in the proposed criteria for adjustment disorder in the ICD-11 [13]. In this study, the ADNM questionnaire was only presented when a stressful event was reported as happening in the last 12 months. The ICD-11 proposes two core symptom groups in adjustment disorder: preoccupation and failure to adapt. The preoccupation scale reflects unwanted repetitive negative thoughts about the stressor in question and includes four items (example item: “I have to think about the stressful situation a lot and this is a great burden to me”). Failure to adapt includes problems with daily functioning that started after the stressor and is assessed with four items (example item: “Since the stressful situation, I don’t like going to work or carrying out the necessary tasks of everyday life”). The items were rated on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Both scales yielded good internal consistency in this sample (preoccupation: females, α = .77 and males, α = .75; maladjustment: females, α = .74 and males, α = .75). The items of the scale as well as of the other measures used in this study can be found in the Additional file 1.

Center for epidemiological studies-depression (CES-D)

This questionnaire is an established measure of depressive symptoms in general populations [34]. In the current study, the German version [35] was used to assess symptom severity as experienced in the 2 weeks prior to the beginning of the study. The 20 items are rated on a four-point Likert scale ranging from “seldom” (0) to “most of the time” (3). The total score reaches from minimum = 0 up to maximum = 60. A score of 23 is meant to indicate clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms. The scale is psychometrically well-validated and is an established instrument measuring depression that is used in different areas, including epidemiological research involving normal populations.

Interpersonal emotion regulation: co-brooding and co-reappraisal

Co-reappraisal and co-brooding was assessed with a new instrument of interpersonal emotion regulation in couples. It refers to everyday behavior in the relationship in the last months and is assessed with a five-point Likert scale ranging from “applies not at all” (0) to “applies fully” (4). The co-reappraisal scale is the averaged score of the following items: “When I am in a bad mood, I talk with my partner … to get a new perspective on things/in order listen to the perspective of my partner to see things in a different light”. Co-brooding was assessed with these items: “When I am in bad mood, …we get stuck and circle around the reasons for my mood, and I do not feel understood by my partner/… I tell my partner the same things that bother me over and over again, even though I know that this does not make a difference/I catch myself complaining about the same things over and over again without getting responsive reactions from my partner”). The items reflect the theoretical assumption that verbalized brooding in its most maladaptive form impairs the possibility of the partner to react responsively. This is also assessed from the partner’s perspective: Both partners in the couple reported not only their own co-reappraisal and co-brooding but also perceived partner co-reappraisal and co-brooding (“When my partner is in a bad mood, … he/she talks about the same things over and over again, and I have trouble understanding her/him; … she/he is talking about the same over and over again without being open to my comments;… is it all about his/her problems and worries, I can’t do too much about it”). The inclusion of the partner perspective was meant to reduce self-report biases and to strengthen the validity in the sense of a multi-trait, multi-method approach [36] as recent views on personality assessment underline the validity of reports by informants [37]. It has been suggested to correlate aggregated means of self-ratings and informant ratings and interpret them as an accuracy score [38]. In this study, co-brooding accuracy scores were higher than co-reappraisal scores (co-brooding r_{female self.male partner} = .41**; r_{male self.female partner} = .32**; co-reappraisal r_{female self.male partner} = .17*, r_{male self.female partner} = .03). This is also reflected in the reliability measure outcomes: the Cronbach’s alpha for the co-brooding scale, including both self and partner reports, was α = .74 for females and α = .70 for males. The composite self/partner report co-reappraisal score yielded unsatisfactory results (females, α = .63; males, α = .53). Theoretically, one might argue that in contrast to co-brooding, co-reappraisal is less associated with overt, well observable behavior because it reflects the motive to change the perspective that does not necessarily need to be verbalized. Therefore, for the co-reappraisal scores, only the mean score of both self-reported items was used. This scale yielded good internal consistency in this sample (females, α = .82; males, α = .76). The items of this new scale are listed in the Additional file 1.

Response style questionnaire: ruminative brooding

Ruminative brooding was assessed with the German version of the Response Style Questionnaire (RSQ; [39]). A previous study yielded good psychometric results for the two subscales of brooding (maladaptive) and reflection (adaptive) in a confirmatory factor analysis and tests of internal consistency and re-test reliability [40]. Accordingly, in this study the internal consistency of the subscale was high (females, α = .74; males, α = .73).

Emotion regulation questionnaire: reappraisal

Reappraisal is a subscale of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire [19], an often used measure of emotion regulation with good psychometric qualities [21]. In this study, the German version was used [41]. The reappraisal scale consists of items like “When I want to feel less negative emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation”. The answer options range from strongly disagree (1) to neutral (4) to strongly agree (7). The scale was high in internal consistency also in this sample (females, α = .82; males, α = .79).

Data analysis

As the data structure is dyadic and mutual interdependencies are to be expected in interpersonal emotion regulation, the models follow the suggested design of regression-based APIM [31]. This allows disentangling actor and partner effects controlling for interdependencies in the couple. In our study adjustment symptoms were only assessed if the individual was at risk, i.e. a psychologically meaningful stressor was reported. Thus, the effects of interpersonal emotion regulation in both partners on the target person at risk for adjustment disorder were analyzed. In order to not violate assumptions of independence and taking into account that in some couples both partners reported stressors, the analyses were run for the female respectively the male sample separately.

In all presented hierarchical regression models, the following variables were entered in the first step as control variables: age, whether the partner reports an event as well, whether the stressful event was related to romantic relationships, whether the stressful event was in general of an interpersonal nature, and the duration of the couple’s relationship. In the second step, actor and partner co-brooding and co-reappraisal were entered as interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. In the last step, actor and partner brooding and reappraisal were entered as intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies, thus providing the opportunity to analyze whether the predictions hold even if controlled for intrapersonal strategies.