Perceived invalidation of emotion uniquely predicts affective distress: Implications for the role of interpersonal factors in emotional experience

Intrapersonal affective styles and emotion regulation strategies have been studied at length and identified as predictors of affective distress (i.e., depression and anxiety symptoms). Less research has evaluated the extent to which distress is predicted by interpersonal factors, like how others respond to people's emotions. Perceived emotion invalidation is one interpersonal factor that occurs when people feel others have negatively evaluated their emotions as unacceptable. Across three studies with both online and college student samples, the current research evaluated perceived invalidation as a predictor of psychological distress while controlling for intrapersonal styles and emotion regulation strategies known to predict distress. Results revealed that perceived emotion invalidation predicted greater affective distress above and beyond: emotional reactivity and expressivity, negative affect, and emotion dysregulation (Study 1); cognitive and behavioral emotion regulation strategies (Study 2); and self-compassion, emotional intelligence, and experiential avoidance (Study 3). These findings suggest that how people perceive others to respond to their emotions contributes to distress more so than simply how people respond to or regulate their own emotions. •How people respond to and regulate their emotions predicts greater distress.•Perceiving one's emotions to be invalidated by others predicts greater distress.•Perceived invalidation predicts distress when controlling for intrapersonal factors.•Distress may be related to actual or perceived emotion invalidation.