Psychopathology and ruminating, savoring, and sharing in the daily lives of adolescents during the Corona pandemic
Creators: name: Janssens, Julie
name: Hagemann, Noëmi
name: Derks, Koen
name: Hiekkaranta, Anu P.
name: Myin-Germeys, Inez
name: Bamps, Eva
name: Kirtley, Olivia
name: Achterhof, Robin
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2026
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: emotion regulation
subject: rumination
subject: savoring
subject: experience sampling method

description: Adolescence compared to childhood and adulthood, is characterized by more intense positive and negative emotions (Verma, &amp; Larson, 1999; Silk, Steinberg, &amp; Morris, 2003), more dynamic emotional states (Somerville, Jones, &amp; Casey, 2010), and greater sensitivity to social and emotional stimuli (Spear, 2009; Bailen, Green, &amp; Thompsom, 2019). In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the already emotionally rich lives of adolescents worldwide, presenting them with unprecedented challenges for their emotional wellbeing. To navigate the landscape of fluctuating emotions and to adapt to daily life under the extraordinary circumstances introduced by the pandemic, adolescents need emotion regulation. At present, few studies have investigated emotion regulation processes in daily life during pandemics or how these processes are related to psychopathology and contextual factors such as intensity of daily positive and negative events. In the current study, we will investigate rumination, savoring, and sharing in the daily life of adolescents during the social distancing measures put in place in Belgium due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we will assess if current psychopathology and event intensity are associated with rumination and sharing in response to negative daily events, and with savoring and sharing in response to daily positive events. To do so, we will use data from an extra measurement within the ongoing SIGMA study (Kirtley et al., 2021; Achterhof et al., 2021), conducted with 173 adolescents from the SIGMA cohort in Flanders (Belgium). Data were collected between 04.05.2020 and 10.05.2020, during the first COVID-19 related lockdown in Belgium. In this extra measure within the SIGMA study, psychopathology was assessed via a self-report questionnaire as a part of a large battery of self-report questionnaires, filled in online at home. Intensity of daily positive and negative events, rumination, sharing, and savoring were measured during a six-day ESM (Experience Sampling Method) period as a part of a momentary ESM survey delivered to the participants 10 times per day. As we have also recently conducted a daily life study with data collected before the pandemic where the same variables were assessed in daily life with similar methodology and the same emotion regulation items, we consider the current study a conceptual replication (i.e., re-testing the same hypotheses again with a different sample, study design, time-period, or measurement method) of previous research (Hiekkaranta et al., 2021). Replication studies are rare in the field of emotion regulation and we are not currently aware of any daily life replication study in this area. Replication studies, though rarely conducted, are vital in testing both the robustness and universality of effects observed in previous studies. Therefore, given the nature of the current conceptual replication study, we derived hypotheses from the results of the study that we aim to replicate.