Prioritizing Lifestyle Factors for Effective Emotion Regulation: A Daily Study on First-Year College Students’ Well-Being During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted emerging adult first-year college students’ daily lives and well-being. Adaptive emotion regulation (ER) is crucial for this developmental transition phase during challenging times. We assessed 1,796 ecological momentary assessments from 76 first-year students (aged 18–20, 71% female, 46% white) during the Spring 2020 COVID-19 campus lockdowns. Multilevel model results revealed that specific Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) based ER behaviors were associated with greater momentary well-being. We then contextualized participants’ likelihood to engage in ER behaviors based on day of the week and human interaction. We found that engaging in ER behaviors increased or decreased based on these factors; specifically, participants were more likely to do nearly all the DBT ER behaviors if they recently interacted with others. This study contributes an ecologically valid understanding of how emerging adult first-year students navigate their emotional experiences and well-being within the confines of daily life during a pandemic.