Moderators and mediators of the interpretation bias--emotional disorders link

Prominent cognitive theories implicate interpretation biases in the etiology and maintenance of emotional disorders. The current chapter examines central mechanisms by which interpretation biases are linked to emotional disorders (i.e., mediators) as well as factors that may attenuate this relationship (i.e., moderators). The main mechanism examined in underlying the link between interpretation bias and emotional disorders is emotion regulation, particularly putatively adaptive (e.g., reappraisal) and maladaptive (e.g., rumination and dampening) strategies. Notably, although there is significant support for mediation from cross-sectional studies, longitudinal examinations are rare, and no experimental designs were found. Evidence for interpretation bias as a mediator in the relationship between factors known to influence emotional disorders (e.g., parental behaviors) and emotional disorders are also discussed. Multiple factors have been examined as moderating the association between interpretation bias and emotional disorders and will be discussed as well, ranging from factors related to the population examined (e.g., age, gender, symptom severity levels, emotional disorder type), factors related to the stimuli interpreted (e.g., self-relevance, modality, specificity of the content to the disorder), and measurement method (e.g., direct or indirect). Finally, studies from developmental samples examining interpersonal factors as potential moderators (e.g., parents’ reactions to children’s emotions) will be briefly presented.