Leveraging emotion regulation techniques to promote health and wellbeing in daily life

Petschek, Eva

Student Work

Leveraging emotion regulation techniques to promote health and wellbeing in daily life

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Given the youth mental health crisis, there is a pressing need to develop personalized interventions to promote emotion regulation and improve mental health in daily life. Research suggests that contingent self-esteem (i.e., self-esteem dependent on others' approval) is a risk factor for poor mental health, making it a potential target for intervention. This study investigated the neural mechanisms of social threat processing, which may underlie contingent self-esteem. Specifically, college students completed an ambiguous faces task during an fMRI scanning session. Participants’ self-esteem and experiences of recent life stressors were also assessed. Results showed that self-esteem (but not life stressors) was associated with differential amygdala activity during social threat processing. This project's findings may help refine future emotion regulation interventions.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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