Original studyPsychreg Journal of Psychology, 2018Read the paper →
Living with depression or another mood disorder often means struggling to manage feelings that seem to arrive without warning. Some people seem better able to read and steady their emotions than others. A study of people with mood problems suggests that this skill, along with a willingness to face difficult feelings, is linked to better mood control.
A researcher at the University of Hertfordshire recruited 95 adults who were currently experiencing some form of mood disorder. The findings appear in Psychreg Journal of Psychology. Participants were found through online mental health support forums and completed a set of questionnaires in an online survey.
The questionnaires measured four things: emotional intelligence, mood regulation, experiential avoidance and reflective coping. The study then looked at how closely these were related, and which of them best predicted how well people managed their moods.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to reason accurately about emotions and use that knowledge to guide thinking. Mood regulation is the ability to influence one’s own moods. Experiential avoidance is the habit of trying to escape unpleasant thoughts and feelings, and reflective coping means thinking problems through calmly before acting.
People with higher emotional intelligence tended to report better mood regulation. This fits with earlier research, much of it carried out with healthy groups such as students and nurses, which has found that emotional skills help people cope with stress.
The study also found a link between experiential avoidance and mood regulation, which some earlier work had not shown. People who tried harder to push painful feelings away tended to manage their moods less well. This suggests that avoidance itself may make mood problems harder to handle.
The findings suggest that treatments aimed at reducing experiential avoidance may be of particular benefit to people currently living with mood problems. Approaches that help people accept difficult feelings rather than fight them could be one route.
The study has clear limits. It was a modest online sample drawn from support forums, which may not represent everyone with a mood disorder. All measures were self-reported at one point in time, so the study cannot show cause and effect.
Most research on emotional intelligence has been carried out with people without a diagnosis. This study adds evidence from a clinical group, and it points to avoidance of feelings as a target worth exploring in therapy.
