Empirical evidence of the role of executive functions in tolerance of emotional distress

Abstract

Executive functions are domain general and therefore coordinate other processes, such as emotionregulation. One emotion regulation skill that has gained interest in the last decade is distresstolerance (DT), but its relationship with executive functions has been poorly explored. The aimof this study is to investigate the relationships between executive functions and self-perceivedand behavioural DT. A total of 196 university students (age: M = 22.63 years; SD = 3.26)completed a Reading Span Task, the Five Digits Test, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task,and the Distress Tolerance Scale. Better executive functioning was related to higher selfperceivedDT. Regarding behavioural DT, students with high DT showed greater cognitiveflexibility and greater inhibition than students with low behavioural DT (no differences werefound for working memory). The study contribute to the knowledge of the relationshipsbetween cognitive and emotional self-regulatory processes and provides a starting point forfuture research.