Emotion regulation difficulties in daily life: Assessment, dynamics, and links to stress-affective states and traits.

Abstract

Emotion regulation difficulties play a major role in general well-being and most psychopathologies, yet their everyday dynamics remain unclear. We adapted the State Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale for ecological momentary assessment and examined how such difficulties unfold in daily life. This entailed how they can be assessed, how they fluctuate over time, and how they are embedded in dynamic stress-affective contexts. In a preregistered study (N = 227; 6 surveys/day for 10 days; collected 2023-2024), adult German participants reported on stressors, affect, and the State Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Confirmatory analyses supported the scale's four-factor structure, with evidence against a general shared "difficulty factor". We provide psychometrically evaluated German-language 4-, 8-, and 18-item versions for ecological momentary assessment together with practical recommendations. Despite considerable convergence with trait assessments, emotion regulation difficulties showed both stability and meaningful fluctuations. They increased after stressors, co-occurred with negative affect, and predicted impaired affective recovery. Stressor effects were stronger among individuals high in trait emotion regulation difficulties and neuroticism. These findings support the assessment of several dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties as dynamic, context-sensitive processes in daily life and provide a basis for further normative and clinical research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).