{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]],"date-time":"2026-02-02T02:52:13Z","timestamp":1770000733688,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769644800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004836","name":"Danish Council for Independent Research","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["DFF\u20144180-00185"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DFF\u20144180-00185"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004836","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objective: To understand how emotion regulation may foster well-being through life transitions, one needs to consider situational factors and the specific strategy applied. Research has rarely investigated how emotion regulation relates to coping across diverse life transitions. Addressing this gap in the literature, the present paper investigated whether emotion regulation strategy use predicted distress during three distinct types of life transitions. Methods: A total of 305 men provided sociodemographic information and completed questionnaires assessing distress symptoms and cognitive emotion regulation strategy use monthly for a five-month period. Of the 305 men, 98 were first-time fathers, 34 had just received a cancer diagnosis, 81 were retiring, and 92 were control participants. Results: The results revealed that the prospective associations between emotion regulation strategy use and distress symptoms varied across life transitions. Self-blame was a predictor of increased anxiety in cancer patients (p = 0.012), acceptance was a predictor of increased depression in retirees (p = 0.007), rumination was a predictor of increased anxiety in fathers (p = 0.009), and for the control group, putting into perspective was associated with greater depression (p = 0.043), while catastrophizing were associated with greater anxiety (p = 0.003). Conclusions: The findings tentatively suggest that the adaptiveness of a given strategy varies depending on the specific life transition being experienced. This is consistent with the \u201cperson by situation by strategy\u201d model, suggesting that successful emotion regulation is determined by the specific strategy applied, features of the situation, and person\u2019s characteristics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16020193","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T13:29:03Z","timestamp":1769693343000},"page":"193","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Context Matters: Longitudinal Effects of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Across Life Transitions in Men Experiencing Cancer Diagnosis, Retirement, and First-Time Fatherhood"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9730-913X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mai Bj\u00f8rnskov","family":"Mikkelsen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hilde","family":"Randa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mia Skytte","family":"O\u2019Toole","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marlene Skovgaard","family":"Lyby","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5820-8937","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mimi Yung","family":"Mehlsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.1007\/s10608-014-9662-4","article-title":"Emotion regulation flexibility","volume":"39","author":"Aldao","year":"2015","journal-title":"Cognitive Therapy and Research"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1951","DOI":"10.1037\/dev0000727","article-title":"Age differences in emotion regulation strategy use, variability, and flexibility: An experience sampling approach","volume":"55","author":"Benson","year":"2019","journal-title":"Developmental Psychology"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"473","DOI":"10.1037\/emo0000566","article-title":"Mix it to fix it: Emotion regulation variability in daily 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