Abstract
Loneliness is a growing public health concern rooted in emotional distress and social disconnection. Interpersonal emotion regulation — managing ones’ own or others’ emotions — is a mechanism for strengthening social bonds and fostering emotional health. Their shared socio-emotional foundation raises the possibility that loneliness may be connected to how people regulate others and are regulated in turn. Accordingly, we investigated whether loneliness is associated with adaptive and maladaptive interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in the moment and over time. To address this question, we conducted a daily diary (N = 170, collected 2020; Study 1) and experience sampling study (N = 239, collected 2021; Study 2). Participants reported on global trait loneliness, then recorded momentary loneliness and use of four strategies as both regulator (regulating others extrinsically) and target of regulation (being regulated by others intrinsically) for seven days. State loneliness predicted greater invalidation as both regulator and target, and global trait loneliness predicted less physical support as regulator and target. Most consistently, the person-level average of momentary loneliness across the week predicted greater use of all strategies — responsiveness, invalidation, reappraisal, and physical support — both as regulator and target. Methodologically, our findings show the importance of assessing loneliness at different time scales. Theoretically, our findings suggest lonely individuals do actively attempt emotion regulation during interactions, yet they may be just as likely to use maladaptive strategies that undermine connection as adaptive strategies that enhance it. This work underscores the importance of interaction quality in understanding how loneliness persists and might be interrupted.