The Role of Self-Criticism and Shame in Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviour Symptoms

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
S. Houazene ◽  
F. Aardema ◽  
J. B. Leclerc ◽  
K. O'Connor

Abstract Body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs), such as hair-pulling, skin-picking, and nail-biting, are non-functional habits associated with difficulties in emotion regulation. Although several models have been developed to explain the difficulties experienced by people suffering from BFRBs, a number of cognitive and emotional processes have yet to be explored. This study sought to investigate the psychological characteristics involved in the development and maintenance of BFRB symptoms. In particular, we aimed to evaluate the relationship of self-criticism, shame, and maladaptive cognitive emotion strategies with symptoms and examine if the relationship between perfectionism and symptoms was mediated by self-criticism and shame. Seventy-six participants from a community sample completed a number of self-report measures. Findings from our multivariate linear regression model supported that shame and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies significantly predicted BFRB symptoms. Results of our mediational analyses revealed that shame significantly mediated the relationship between perfectionism and BFRB symptoms. Interventions that target shame may be beneficial for treating these conditions. Future studies should replicate these findings with clinical populations and other BFRB subtypes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Vuillier ◽  
Jemma Joseph ◽  
Matthew P. Somerville ◽  
Amy Harrison

Abstract Objective Research suggests that beliefs about emotional controllability influence the use of emotion regulation strategies, which in turn impact psychological health and illness. However, no research has yet investigated whether emotional controllability is linked to eating psychopathology. The current study investigates whether these concepts are related, as individuals with eating disorders have problems with emotion regulation. Method We collected self-report data from 718 participants from a community sample using validated questionnaires, and ran mediational analyses to assess the relationship between emotional controllability and eating psychopathology, via reappraisal and suppression, two emotion regulation strategies. Results Our mediational analyses suggest that believing emotions to be uncontrollable relates to high levels of suppression (β = −.08), low levels of reappraisal (β = .19) and poorer eating disorder psychopathology (β = −.11). Reappraisal and suppression were found to partially mediate the relationship between emotional controllability and eating psychopathology. Discussion The current study has demonstrated relationships that support investigations relating emotional controllability, emotion regulation and psychological health. This research has potential implications for developing interventions to target beliefs about emotions in order to help improve emotion regulation skills and eating psychopathology.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1469
Author(s):  
Eva Rüfenacht ◽  
Eléonore Pham ◽  
Rosetta Nicastro ◽  
Karen Dieben ◽  
Roland Hasler ◽  
...  

Childhood maltreatment (CM) may have a long-term effect on emotion regulation. This study aimed to explore the relationship between CM and emotion dysregulation (ED) in a heterogeneous population. Four hundred seventy French-speaking outpatients (N = 279 ADHD, N = 70 BPD, N = 60 ADHD + BPD, N = 61 clinical controls) completed the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS), the Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ). Reports of childhood maltreatment experiences were significantly associated with increased levels of emotion reactivity in all our groups and in the whole population, with a greater use of non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and insecure attachment patterns. Emotional abuse showed the strongest effect. Further analysis indicated that an anxious attachment style significantly mediated the relationship between CM and the use of non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and emotion reactivity. The results of our study suggest an impact of CM on ED and a potentially marked effect of emotional abuse. They also indicate a potentially mediating role of insecure attachment in the relationship between a history of childhood abuse and emotion reactivity and a higher use of non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies in adulthood.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M Thompson ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum ◽  
Bhismadev Chakrabarti

The constructs of empathy (i.e. understanding/sharing another’s emotion) and emotion regulation (i.e. the processes by which one manages emotions) have largely been studied in relative isolation of one another. To better understand the interrelationships between their various component processes, this manuscript reports two studies that examined the relationship between empathy and emotion regulation using a combination of self-report and task measures. In study 1 (N=137), trait cognitive and affective empathy were found to share divergent relationships with self-reported emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation was negatively related to cognitive empathy but showed no relationship with affective empathy. In the second study (N=92), the magnitude of emotion interference effects (i.e. the extent to which inhibitory control was impacted by emotional relative to neutral stimuli) in variants of a Go/NoGo and Stroop task were used as proxy measures of implicit emotion regulation abilities. Trait cognitive and affective empathy were found to share different relationships with both task metrics. Higher affective empathy was associated with increased emotional interference in the Emotional Go/NoGo; no such relationship was observed for trait cognitive empathy. In the Emotional Stroop, higher cognitive empathy was associated with reduced emotional interference, but no such relationship was observed for affective empathy. Together, these studies demonstrate that greater cognitive empathy was broadly associated with improved emotion regulation abilities, while greater affective empathy was typically associated with increased difficulties with emotion regulation. This finding points to the need for assessing the different components of empathy in psychopathological conditions marked by difficulties in emotion regulation.


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