Exploring the Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Social Anxiety Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Negative Mood Regulation Expectancies

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) and social anxiety symptoms and the mediating role of negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE). We hypothesised that IER is positively associated with social anxiety symptoms, controlling for depression and intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies of suppression and reappraisal, and NMRE mediate this relationship. METHODS: Study 1 was conducted with a student sample (N = 400) and Study 2 included a community sample with 271 participants. RESULTS: Study 1 showed that, of four IER strategies, soothing and social modeling were positively, and perspective-taking was negatively related to social anxiety symptoms controlling for depression, suppression and reappraisal. Study 2 replicated these findings and extended them by showing the mediated relationship between the two IER strategies (i.e. enhancing positive affect and soothing) and social anxiety symptoms through NMRE. CONCLUSIONS: The results contribute to the limited research on IER by portraying its relationship with social anxiety symptoms and revealing the mediating role of NMRE in this relationship.