Original & Prepared Data - Exploring links between social identity, emotion regulation and loneliness in those with and without a history of mental illness

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between key constructs drawn from both the emotion regulation and social identity perspectives, with a view to understand loneliness in adults with and without a history of mental illness. Participants (N = 875) with a mental illness history (MH Hx, n = 217; Mage = 45 years, 59% female) and without a mental illness history (No MH Hx, n = 658; Mage = 47 years, 48% female) completed a survey comprising measures of group membership and connectedness, emotion regulation strategies, and loneliness. The MH Hx group reported higher internal affect worsening strategy use and loneliness than those no MH Hx. Hierarchical regressions indicated that the unique contributions of emotion regulation strategies and social identity factors to loneliness were equivalent between the groups. Together, social identity and emotion regulation explained 37% of the variance in loneliness in the No MH Hx subsample, and 35% in the MH Hx subsample. These findings suggest that both emotion regulation and social identity had significant unique contributions to the reported loneliness of people when controlling for demographics and each other in those with and without a history of mental illness.

本研究旨在探讨源自情绪调节（emotion regulation）与社会认同（social identity）视角的关键构念间的关联，以期理解有/无精神疾病病史成年人的孤独感状况。本次研究共纳入875名参与者，分为有精神疾病病史组（mental illness history，缩写MH Hx，n=217；平均年龄45岁，女性占比59%）与无精神疾病病史组（No MH Hx，n=658；平均年龄47岁，女性占比48%）。两组均完成了包含群体成员感与联结感测评、情绪调节策略量表及孤独感量表的问卷调查。有精神疾病病史组报告的内部情绪恶化型调节策略使用频率与孤独感水平均高于无精神疾病病史组。分层回归分析结果显示，情绪调节策略与社会认同因素对孤独感的独特预测效应在两组间无显著差异。综合来看，社会认同与情绪调节因素可解释无精神疾病病史亚组中37%的孤独感得分变异，以及有精神疾病病史亚组中35%的孤独感得分变异。上述研究结果表明，在控制人口统计学变量与两类因素彼此的效应后，无论是否存在精神疾病病史，情绪调节与社会认同均对个体报告的孤独感存在显著的独特预测作用。