More Moments with Others Matter for Emotion Regulation and Well-Being: A Study of First-Year College Students’ Daily Life During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted emerging adult, first-year college students’ daily lives and well-being. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) recognizes that effective and adaptive emotion regulation can be improved by training skills for managing contextual (ABC) and physiological (PLEASE) factors. An ecological momentary assessment study collected 1,796 data points from 76 first-year students' daily usage of emotion regulation (ER) skills and momentary experiences of well-being (PERMA; Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning, Accomplishment) during COVID-19 in Spring 2020. Research questions explored: (a) Is usage of ER skills associated with elements of momentary PERMA above and beyond trait-level PERMA?; (b) Are lifestyle factors (e.g., day, interaction with people) related to first-year college students’ likelihood of employing ER skills in a given moment? Results from multilevel models revealed that certain DBT ER skills (accumulating positives, building mastery, coping ahead) were consistently predictive of momentary well-being even when controlling for dispositional well-being. Moreover, on days of sufficient sleep hours reported, students reported higher well-being levels; on days with more interaction with other people, students were more likely to engage in ER behaviors; and on weekends students were less likely to engage in ER behaviors (but not avoid substances like alcohol). Findings add to the literature on momentary well-being and ER for the population of first-year college students; limitations and future directions are discussed.
COVID-19, Ecological momentary assessment, Emerging adults, Emotion regulation skills, First-year college students, Well-being, Developmental Psychology, Psychology
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