New study reveals complex relationship between emotional coping and health outcomes

Complex Relationship:- In a recent systematic review and meta-analysis, now published as the Editor’s Choice in the Journal Health Psychology, corresponding author, Michael Hoyt, PhD, professor of population health and disease prevention from UC Irvine’s Program in Public Health and collaborators offers new insights into the associations between emotional approach coping (EAC), which involves processing and expressing stressor-related emotions, and various health indicators like behavioral, biological/physiological, mental/emotional distress, physical health, positive psychological health, social functioning, resilience-related psychological adjustment, and risk-related psychological adjustment. This comprehensive study synthesizes findings from 86 studies published across more than three decades. 

Key Findings: 

• The study reveals that EAC is generally associated with better overall health across health domains. 

• Positive outcomes: EAC was found to be beneficial in biological/physiological health, physical health, and resilience-related psychological adjustment. 

• Behavioral engagement: Emotional processing (EP) was associated with greater engagement in health-promoting behaviors, indicating a potential pathway through which EAC contributes to health. 

• Expressing and processing emotions were not shown to be universally beneficial and may also have been associated with risk-related psychological adjustment factors and mental/emotional distress. 

The study findings suggest that coping with stress through emotional approaches can have nuanced effects on health, with general benefits for physical and psychological well-being, but also potential drawbacks in certain psychological domains. The study highlights the need for further research to understand the mechanisms and contexts that influence these outcomes. Newswise/SP