Momentary emotion regulation and executive function in daily life

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are theorised to impose differing cognitive demands. However, little is known about the momentary association between ER strategy use and executive function (EF) in daily life. To address this issue, 224 young adults (Mage = 22.59, SDage = 3.52 years) completed an experience-sampling protocol (4x/day for 7 days), reporting use of engagement (positive reappraisal, acceptance) and disengagement (detached reappraisal, distraction) ER strategies, as well as positive and negative pre-regulation emotional intensity for the focal event. At each sampling occasion, participants also completed EF tasks assessing the core components of inhibition, updating, and shifting. We tested whether ER strategy use would be negatively (depletion account) or positively (facilitation account) linked to fluctuations in EF performance. Consistent with the facilitation account, findings indicated that, at the within-person level, use of engagement ER strategies was associated with better EF performance. Conversely, the within-person use of disengagement ER strategies was not linked to EF. However, on occasions when participants reported high (but not low) pre-regulation positive emotional intensity, greater use of disengagement strategies was associated with better EF performance. These findings suggest that momentary shifts in both ER strategy use and emotional intensity jointly relate to EF in daily life.