Adolescence is an important stage for the development of emotion regulation skills, especially for adolescent girls who are at elevated risk for the development of depression and anxiety. Although some emotion regulation strategies are more effective at helping adolescents regulate negative affect on average, research indicates strategy effectiveness varies with the context in which a strategy is deployed. Yet less work has been done examining which contextual factors are associated with adolescents switching emotion regulation strategies in their daily lives. This study examined individual and contextual factors related to negative interpersonal events that are associated with strategy effectiveness, including age, emotional intensity, perceived controllability, and co-regulatory support, and their association with adolescent emotion regulation strategy switching in daily life via ecological momentary assessment. Results indicated that adolescent girls differed in the degree to which they altered their emotion regulation strategies throughout their daily lives, and that switching strategies was associated with age as well as individual and within-person differences in perceived controllability, emotional intensity, and co-regulatory support. This study provides critical proof-of-concept of the utility of emotion regulation strategy switching as a measure of regulatory flexibility and highlights regulatory processes that may hold clues to the mechanisms of developmental psychopathology.

Are we flexible in using different strategies to regulate our emotions during our daily functioning? What are the personal and situational mechanisms accounting for this complex set of emotion regulation (ER) processes? And to what extent different forms of ER flexibility are adaptive? Current empirical evidence challenges a static view of ER strategies as inherently adaptive or maladaptive. This has led contemporary accounts to consider the variation in use of ER strategies across time depending on the complex interplay of personal characteristics, specific situational demands, and motivational goals. However, despite the relevance of these new approaches and their obvious theoretical and practical implications, the study of ER flexibility is a relatively young research field, still lacking common integrative views. In this paper, I briefly discuss the shared and unique components across different theoretical frameworks of ER flexibility and make recommendations for future research to advance the understanding of this crucial phenomenon. I identify specific questions that may be contrasted through programmatic research lines and propose that the integration of cognitive mechanisms known to affect ER may help to advance the science of ER flexibility. I also enumerate a series of methodological approaches that can be used to tests proposed models of ER flexibility. Finally, I highlight potential practical implications that can be derived from these new research programs in order to improve interventions aimed at promoting adaptive ER flexibility and adaptive functioning.