The associations of emotion regulation and dysregulation with the metabolic syndrome factor.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Emotion regulation has been associated with good, and dysregulation with poor subjective health; but it is unclear if emotion regulation is related to metabolic syndrome. METHODS: Associations between the metabolic syndrome factor (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and glucose), emotion regulation (the strategies of repair and maintenance, self-perceived emotion regulation) and dysregulation (emotional ambivalence); and subjective health (self-rated health and psychosomatic symptoms) were studied using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The participants (96 women, 85 men) were drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JYLS). RESULTS: High repair was associated directly to the low metabolic syndrome factor, while high maintenance, high self-perceived emotion regulation, and low emotional ambivalence were related indirectly to the low metabolic syndrome factor through good subjective health. CONCLUSIONS: Successful emotion regulation may have an association not only with the subjective experience of health, but also with physiological regulation systems, leading to a reduced risk for metabolic syndrome.