Distress Tolerance in the Context of Emotional Reactivity and Learned Helplessness

Abstract

Limited attention has been given to the individual differences in distress tolerance in the existing literature. Past studies suggest that the emotional reactivity and learned helplessness individual factors are distress tolerance. Specifically, in the context of self-damaging behavior, further investigation is required to identify the impacts of emotional reactivity and learned helplessness. This study is based on a field survey and the data was collected from 108 respondents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that measures learned helplessness, emotional reactivity, distress tolerance, and self-damaging behavior. Following Khosravani et al. (2021) and Ghasemzadeh et al. (2021), the “Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)” was applied to achieve the results. Findings suggest that together emotional reactivity and learned helplessness can explain the perceived variance in distress tolerance. Further, distress tolerance has a significant impact on self-damaging behavior. Our findings are in line with Sommers (2017). Furthermore, the findings will have implications for researchers studying distress tolerance and self-damaging behaviors, clinicians treating clients with difficulty managing distress, or self-damaging behaviors. The research recommends that emotional reactivity could be a key target of clinical involvement and preemptive learning.