Abstract

This study aimed to examine effects of affect labeling, the act of paying attention to and naming one’s emotional state, on emotional clarity, affect intensity, emotion dysregulation, and depressive symptoms in individuals with depressive tendencies in comparison with other emotion regulation strategies. A total of 71 adults identified as having depressive tendencies were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: affect labeling, positive reappraisal, or observation. The intervention was conducted over the course of one week to assess both immediate and repeated effects of each strategy. Results following repeated sessions revealed significant main effects of time and interaction effects between time and intervention condition for emotional clarity and emotion dysregulation. Specifically, the affect labeling condition showed a significant increase in emotional clarity but a significant decrease in emotion dysregulation after seven days. In contrast, no meaningful changes were observed immediately after a single intervention session. Regarding depressive symptoms, both affect labeling and positive reappraisal conditions demonstrated significant reductions after the one-week intervention period. These findings suggest that affect labeling might serve as an effective emotion regulation strategy for individuals with depressive tendencies, particularly when applied repeatedly over time.