Cognitive emotion regulation in the prediction of depression, anxiety, stress, and anger

Cognitive coping processes have long been implicated in the experience and expression of emotion. Recently, a new instrument, the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ; Garnefski, Kraaij, & Spinhoven, 2001), was developed to measure nine different cognitive coping strategies people often use when faced with a negative event: self-blame, other blame, rumination, catastrophizing, acceptance, putting into perspective, positive refocus, refocus on planning, and positive reappraisal. Although there is substantial research exploring the relationships between these processes and depression, the research on other negative emotions is much sparser. This study addresses this limitation by exploring the relationships between the CERQ and depression, anxiety, stress, and anger. Results supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the CERQ and demonstrated that, independent of respondent gender, self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, and positive reappraisal were among the most valuable predictors of negative emotions.