Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies mediate the relationship between biased cognitions and depression

Introduction: Depression has previously been found to emerge from and be perpetuated by negative cognitive biases. However, a plethora of underlying psychological mechanisms are likely to be involved in the relationship. The current study investigated whether maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies such as self-blame, rumination, and catastrophising may mediate the link between negative cognitive biases and depression.

Methods: Participants (n = 251) completed the study via the internet data collection software, Pavlovia. The Self-Referent Encoding Task was used to measure self-referential and memory biases while maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and depression were assessed using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Depression Anxiety Scales, respectively.

Results: Results showed that maladaptive strategies mediate the relationship between cognitive biases and depression. The tendency to blame oneself for playing an influential role in a negatively perceived life event seems to play a key role in the negative cognitive bias-depression relationship.

Conclusion: Therapists should consider focusing their efforts on reducing self-blame when clients demonstrate evidence of self-referential and memory bias. Interventions may include refocusing blame on others, rather than the self.