Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Identifying phenotypes concerning emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in people living with obesity, type 1 diabetes, and both." "Bart Van Der Schueren" "Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology" "Introduction – This PhD aims to explore and identify phenotypes concerning emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in people living with obesity and adults with type 1 diabetes. Prevalence numbers of obesity and type 1 diabetes have been rising, leading to worldwide concern. Emotional factors can play a role in the management of both conditions, including emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour. The phenotyping based on emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour is still elusive in these two populations. These phenotypes can make it easier to detect certain risks, better tailor treatments to the patient, and develop new intervention strategies, for example through additional psychological support. The proposed research is estimated to be completed within four years, including data collection, analysis, and dissertation writing. My interest in this topic grew during a one-year internship as a liaison psychologist in training within the Department of Endocrinology at UZ Leuven, during which I already set up a small-scale exploratory study on emotion regulation in people living with obesity. During this period, I was in the unique position to interact with both people living with obesity and adults with type 1 diabetes. This way, I gained more knowledge about their difficulties with emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour and the influence of this on their prognosis.Objectives – The primary objectives of this PhD are:1.To find the most optimal way to measure emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in a test battery. 2.To characterize phenotypes of emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in people living with obesity.3.To extend the usage of these phenotypes to adults with type 1 diabetes.Methodology – First, a literature review will provide an in-depth analysis of existing research on emotion regulation, emotional eating behaviour, obesity, type 1 diabetes, and already existing phenotypes within these conditions. Second, a test battery will be created including different questionnaires to measure emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in people living with obesity. By analysing the results from these questionnaires using appropriate statistical methods, this research aims to identify different phenotypes. Third, this test battery will be given to adults living with type 1 diabetes to explore the phenotypes concerning emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour and the results will be compared to the administration from people living with obesity.Outcomes and impact – The exploration and characterization of different phenotypes in regards to emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour first and foremost in the population of people living with obesity and secondly in adults with type 1 diabetes, can have multiple implications. First, more awareness can be created about emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in these patient populations. Second, multidisciplinary interventions can be better tailored by having clarity around possible difficulties with emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour. Third, psychological counselling can be more efficiently recommended to those who can benefit from it. Conclusion – This PhD aims to explore and create phenotypes concerning emotion regulation and emotional eating behaviour in people living with obesity and adults with type 1 diabetes to improve the well-being of individuals living with these conditions." "Understanding emotional attention from an emotion regulation goal perspective." "Jan De Houwer" "Department of Experimental clinical and health psychology" "We examine the idea that emotion regulation goals cause and modulate attentional biases to emotional information. Based on this idea, we predict that what stimuli will be attended (e.g., positive or negative) and how attention might be deployed (i.e., towards or away) will depend on the emotion regulation goal at stake." "Effectiveness of experiential emotion regulation versus cognitive reappraisal in the processing of emotional events." "Marie Vandekerckhove" "Psychology, Stanford University, Clinical and Lifespan Psychology, Radiology" "Despite the huge amount of evidence in favor of cognitive reappraisal [1], currently, evidence showed that this effectiveness is not always guaranteed. It appears not only to depend on individual differences but also on contextual variables such as the way emotion is generated, being less effective in bottom up visually generated emotions [2]. More empirical insight is thus desirable into the effectiveness of complementary ER approaches such as experiential ER in the recovery from bottom up generated emotional painful events. Therefore, in collaboration with James Gross of Stanford University, who is the pioneer in the research on cognitive reappraisal, this program aims to increase the understanding of the effectiveness of experiential ER relative to cognitive reappraisal. Rooted in experiential therapy, central to the experiential approach is firstly the facilitation of the in-depth exploration of the bodily felt affective experience (‘experiential awareness’) and secondly the verbal expression (‘experiential expression’) of it." "The road to resilience: The role of cognitive flexibility in emotion regulation and stress resilience" "Rudi De Raedt" "Department of Experimental clinical and health psychology" "Everyone experiences emotionally challenging events in life, but it remains unclear why for some people this causes sustained distress, while others can regulate their emotions and adapt to a changing situation. Cognitive flexibility, the ability to flexibly adapt one’ thoughts in response to events, is important in the context of such emotional events. While cognitive flexibility has been related to resilience and effective emotion regulation, cognitive inflexibility is observed across several psychiatric disorders. Understanding the role of cognitive flexibility in emotion regulation is essential because effective emotion regulation facilitates resilience while maladaptive emotion regulation underlies several psychiatric disorders. However, current research is mostly crosssectional. This project aims to further investigate the role of cognitive flexibility in emotion regulation and stress resilience. First, we will use a prospective and experimental design with neurostimulation to clarify the causal role of the ability to be cognitive flexible in experienced mental distress, resilience and emotion regulation. Second, we will analyse how the propensity to adopt a more flexible cognitive style in response to a (changing) context relates to emotion regulation and resilience in both a healthy sample and a clinical sample with emotion regulation impairments. Findings from the project could be relevant for development of more sophisticated therapeutic and prevention programmes." "How to deal with how you feel: Understanding and training context-dependent emotion regulation" "Peter Kuppens" "Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences" "Emotion regulation refers to the variety of processes through which people attempt to influence their emotions. The ability to effectively regulate emotions is key to psychological wellbeing, and emotion dysregulation is a central element of mood disorders. The existing research tends to paint emotion regulation strategies as either adaptive or maladaptive, but increasingly researchers are beginning to realize that this characterization is an oversimplification. Instead, responding with the right strategy in the right context is key for adaptive regulation and, hence, for mental health. However, there is very little empirical investigation of how context shapes the use and effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies. In this application, we propose to first establish who uses what emotion regulation strategy when (i.e. the context) and to what effect, using innovative smartphone assessment methods to examine these processes in daily life. Second, we propose using this information about context as input to train people to use the right strategy at the right time using a smartphone application, with an aim to improve mental health." "EuREKA: Training Emotion Regulation in Adolescents" "Caroline Braet" "Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Maastricht University, Agricultural institute of Slovenia, University of Turin, DCE - Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, Royal Agricultural University, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Institut de l’Elevage, Agricultural University of Athens, National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre" "Present research project aims to evaluate a transdiagnostic intervention protocol (Eureka; training emotion regulation in adolescents) for adolescents 10-14 years, diagnosed with internalizing or externalizing problems and seeking help in inpatient or outpatient clinical settings The transdiagnostic protocol is innovative as it incorporates the training of different well-evaluated emotion regulation strategies and skills in a strict structured sequens Based on series of single case studies, effects are expected on degree of psychopathology as primary outcome Next, weekly effects on stress, emotion regulation and affect will also be assessed through self-report and further validated with a psychophysiology measure Furthermore, aiming to increase homework compliance, we will develop and evaluate the effect of providing homework through eHealth channels, resulting in  a new EuREKA format In order to fulfill this aim, the project will comprise 3 WP's scrutinizing the outcome of the EuREKA training using single-case methodology, preceded by a systematic review on blended care youth mental health interventions whereby a final study will evaluate the assumed important role of the first emotion regulation skill of the structured sequens of the training: emotional awareness The project will set the stage for developing a groundbreaking RCT" "Pink cloud or baby blues? The role of emotion regulation and attachment in first-time parents’ response to stress during the transition to parenthood." "Bart Soenens" "Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology" "The birth of a child is an important and potentially challenging life transition. For some parents, the transition goes along with lowered psychosocial well-being. One of the most proximal predictors for well-being is parental stress. This project investigates the role of emotion regulation in experienced stress. Moreover, attachment relationships are investigated with regard to interindividual differences in postnatal emotion regulation." "Boosting vulnerable adolescents: the potential of training emotion regulation skills" "Caroline Braet" "Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology" "Adolescence is characterized by increased stress experiences which may foster severe mental health problems. Based on the vulnerability-stress model, we assume that adolescents with a vulnerable temperament or high levels of stress are most at-risk. However, predicting adolescents’mental health based solely on stressors and temperamental disposition is less sufficient to develop tools to intervene. Therefore, the first aim of the current project is to test an innovative model that predicts the development of adolescents’internalizing and externalizing problems by including a malleable mechanism, namely emotion regulation. The model will be tested in a community, with the use of a longitudinal design and state of the art measures. The second aim of the project is to evaluate the effects of a combined (Boost Camp + E-Boost) prevention program targeting emotion regulation for at-risk adolescents. Boost Camp was evaluated as a universal prevention program with the funding of the Research Foundation Flanders (Red Noses) in 2017-218. E-Boost is an e-health program which allows at risk youth to practice emotion regulation at home. Effects will be compared in adolescents between 11 and 13 years old at low and high risk for the development of mental health problems with the use of a 2-sided clustered randomized controlled trial." "Emotion Regulation in the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity in Young Adolescents" "Caroline Braet" "Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology" "This multidisciplinary project aims to prove that studying emotion regulation for restoring the psychological and physiological homeostasis is a promising progress for a profound understanding of the obesity problem. We aim to exceed current expertise on obesity with various complementary study designs: longitudinal, case-control and a randomized-clinical-trial using emotion regulation training. Evidence will come from psychological and physiological outcome measures." "Emotion Regulation in the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity in Young Adolescents" "Stefaan De Henauw" "Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Department of Public health" "This multidisciplinary project aims to prove that studying emotion regulation for restoring the psychological and physiological homeostasis is a promising progress for a profound understanding of the obesity problem. We aim to exceed current expertise on obesity with various complementary study designs: longitudinal, case-control and a randomized-clinical-trial using emotion regulation training. Evidence will come from psychological and physiological outcome measures."