The Influence of Exercise on Adaptive  Emotion Regulation in Individuals with  Sensory Processing Sensitivity

If employees are not able to deal effectively with their emotions, negative consequences may occur such as absenteeism, turnover, and poorer physical and mental health. Therefore this study aimed to investigate if exercise fosters emotion regulation. It was hypothesized that 1) exercise would lead to less negative emotions; 2) this relationship is mediated by adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and 3) this effect would be greater for individuals high versus low in sensory processing sensitivity. To investigate this, an experimental, between-subjects design was used. A total of 134 students were recruited from Dutch universities, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exercise, active control (making a puzzle), or passive control (rest). During the experiment, all participants filled out a questionnaire measuring background variables, negative state emotions, and trait sensory processing sensitivity. After this, participants underwent a negative emotion induction...Show moreIf employees are not able to deal effectively with their emotions, negative consequences may occur such as absenteeism, turnover, and poorer physical and mental health. Therefore this study aimed to investigate if exercise fosters emotion regulation. It was hypothesized that 1) exercise would lead to less negative emotions; 2) this relationship is mediated by adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and 3) this effect would be greater for individuals high versus low in sensory processing sensitivity. To investigate this, an experimental, between-subjects design was used. A total of 134 students were recruited from Dutch universities, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exercise, active control (making a puzzle), or passive control (rest). During the experiment, all participants filled out a questionnaire measuring background variables, negative state emotions, and trait sensory processing sensitivity. After this, participants underwent a negative emotion induction task to elicit negative emotions and create a need to regulate emotions. They then spent thirty minutes on a cycle ergometer, doing a puzzle, or resting in a chair, after which adaptive emotion regulation strategies and negative emotions were measured. A mixed ANCOVA was conducted to test whether participants in the exercise condition experienced less negative emotions after cycling for thirty minutes than the participants in the control conditions, which was not supported by the data. The SPSS extension ,,PROCESS” was used to test the second (model 4) and third (model 7) hypothesis. Support was found for the expectation that participants in the exercise condition make more use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies after cycling for thirty minutes, and therefore experience less negative emotions than the participants in the puzzle or rest condition (significant full mediation effect). Lastly, the hypothesis that the effect of exercise on negative emotions via emotion regulation would be greater for those scoring higher on sensory processing sensitivity than for those scoring lower on this trait, was not supported. These findings further our knowledge on the interdependence of these variables, since inconsistencies found in the literature may be explained by the indirect effect found in this study. The role of adaptive emotion regulation may be key to understanding the underlying mechanisms of how exercise influences emotions. This could potentially impact the development of creating (workplace) interventions, where combining an exercise intervention with increasing the knowledge of the employees about adaptive emotion regulation strategies might be most effective. However, more research in this area is needed to test how generalizable this effect is, since there is reason to believe gender differences and natural preferences (versus lab imposed conditions) may influence these findings.Show less

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The Influence of Exercise on Adaptive Emotion Regulation in Individuals with Sensory Processing Sensitivity