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Purpose

The proposed study is designed to first test whether teaching people personalized or standardized emotion regulation skills leads to greater decreases in daily negative emotion intensity. Second, using data from an initial sample, the investigators will prospectively assign an independent sample of participants to receive their predicted optimal or non-optimal skills to determine if it is feasible and efficacious to match participants to the most appropriate training condition. Results of these studies may identify the mechanisms by which emotion regulation interventions impact emotional functioning and allow for the development of personalized, evidence-based, and scalable emotion regulation interventions.

Conditions

Eligibility

Eligible Ages
Over 18 Years
Eligible Genders
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No

Inclusion Criteria

  • Elevated emotion dysregulation

Exclusion Criteria

  • Lack of proficiency in English - No access to smartphone - Conditions requiring greater than outpatient care

Study Design

Phase
N/A
Study Type
Interventional
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention Model
Parallel Assignment
Primary Purpose
Treatment
Masking
Single (Participant)

Arm Groups

ArmDescriptionAssigned Intervention
Active Comparator
Personalized Condition 		Participants will learn one of three emotion regulation skills (i.e., cognitive restructuring, opposite to emotion action, mindfulness) that is their personal strength, based on pre-Baseline emotion regulation capacities. They will watch an interactive video, created for the current study, in which they are taught the skill that is their personal strength. They will also be asked to complete a survey during the video in which they will input their own examples to practice the skill and to ensure attention to and comprehension of the material.
  • Behavioral: Checking the Facts
    Checking the Facts is a form of cognitive reappraisal in which participants identify negatively-valenced automatic thoughts and both generate and consider evidence that challenges the validity of those thoughts.
    Other names:
    • cognitive restructuring
  • Behavioral: Opposite to Emotion Action
    Opposite to Emotion Action teaches participants to identify their momentary emotion(s), identify the associated behavioral urge(s), and implement a behavior inconsistent with that urge (e.g., approaching a feared stimulus instead of avoiding it).
    Other names:
    • Opposite Action
  • Behavioral: Mindfulness of Current Emotions
    Mindfulness of Current Emotions teaches participants to nonjudgmentally observe the experience of their emotions, including physiological and cognitive responses to those emotions.
    Other names:
    • mindfulness
    • acceptance
Active Comparator
Standardized Condition 		Participants will learn all three ER skills: cognitive restructuring, opposite to emotion action, and mindfulness. Participants will be asked to watch three interactive videos that cover each skill to provide an analogue to clinical practice in which clinicians must choose whether to provide greater breadth or depth of skill coverage. These videos will be presented in a randomized order and will include the same surveys for attention and comprehension used in the Personalized Condition.
  • Behavioral: Checking the Facts
    Checking the Facts is a form of cognitive reappraisal in which participants identify negatively-valenced automatic thoughts and both generate and consider evidence that challenges the validity of those thoughts.
    Other names:
    • cognitive restructuring
  • Behavioral: Opposite to Emotion Action
    Opposite to Emotion Action teaches participants to identify their momentary emotion(s), identify the associated behavioral urge(s), and implement a behavior inconsistent with that urge (e.g., approaching a feared stimulus instead of avoiding it).
    Other names:
    • Opposite Action
  • Behavioral: Mindfulness of Current Emotions
    Mindfulness of Current Emotions teaches participants to nonjudgmentally observe the experience of their emotions, including physiological and cognitive responses to those emotions.
    Other names:
    • mindfulness
    • acceptance

Recruiting Locations

UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science and nearby locations

University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40508
Contact:
Matthew W Southward, Ph.D.

More Details

NCT ID
NCT05651295
Status
Recruiting
Sponsor
Matthew Southward

Study Contact

Matthew W Southward, Ph.D.
859-562-1569
copingskillsstudy@gmail.com

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.