Difficulties in emotion reactivity, awareness (alexithymia), and regulation are highly correlated and feature in a variety of psychological disorders. However, the nature of their connections remains largely unclear. In this study, we applied network analysis to build a network-based model of these three emotional constructs and examined their roles in psychological disorders (depression and anxiety) using data from 1,105 community adults. Participants have been recruited online in 2022. Both undirected networks and directed networks were constructed. The results indicated that difficulty inhibiting behaviors during positive emotions, difficulties downregulating negative feelings, and difficulties identifying positive feelings were highly influential nodes in undirected networks with and without depression and anxiety. Difficulty inhibiting behaviors during negative emotions was most strongly associated with depression and anxiety. The directed network further identified potential driving and outcome nodes among these constructs. These findings advance understanding of the interrelationship between related emotional constructs and their integration within emotional processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Liu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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