Unemployment-Study_PREPRINT

Important individual differences exist in how people respond to major stressors. Despite the key roles attributed to emotion regulation and cognitive control in resilience and vulnerability to stress, relatively few studies have directly investigated these relationships upon confrontation with major stressors, such as unemployment. The current pre-registered study thus set out to prospectively test mediational hypotheses, in which baseline cognitive control (indexed by performance on a cognitive task) and self-reported effortful control predict emotion regulation (follow-up 1), in turn predicting internalizing symptomatology or resilience (follow-up 2). Data of 84 people confronted with unemployment were analyzed using path models: one based on primary outcome measures (repetitive negative thinking and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress) and one based on secondary outcome measures (positive thinking style and resilience). The results show that effortful control and cognitive control are relevant distal factors to consider when investigating emotional symptoms and resilience in the unemployed.