Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) is a vulnerability factor for internalizing psychopathology. There is increasing awareness that the effectiveness of ER is dependent on the ability to flexibly use a diverse repertoire of strategies. To capture this construct, I conceptualized ER diversity and developed a novel index for its assessment. The ER diversity index predicted internalizing disorders and transdiagnostic symptom dimensions above and beyond traditional ER indices. I am currently working on an intramurally funded project to integrate ER diversity in a multi-tiered clinical trial to improve mental health outcomes for ethnic and racial minority patients.
Wen, A., Metts, A. V., Zinbarg, R. E., Mineka, S., & Craske, M. G. (2025). Tri-level anxiety and depression symptom trajectory in adolescents: The role of emotion regulation diversity. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 109, 102941.
Wen, A., Rao, U., Kinney, K. L., Yoon, K. L., & Morris, M. (2024). Diversity in emotion regulation strategy use: Resilience against posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour research and therapy, 172, 104441.
Wen, A., Quigley, L., Yoon, K. L., & Dobson, K. S. (2021). Emotion Regulation Diversity in Current and Remitted Depression. Clinical Psychological Science, 9(4), 563-578.
Difficulties in emotional information processing are central to internalizing disorders. Cognitive control is viewed as the foundation of emotional information processing. In a meta-analytic review, I found that individuals at risk for depression recurrence had greater biased cognitive control characterized by less efficient processing of negative than positive material. In multiple empirical studies, I found that both depression and anxiety were associated with biases in cognitive control. Therefore, biased cognitive control that prolongs the processing of negative material over positive material may be a transdiagnostic risk factor for internalizing disorders.
Wen, A., Fischer, E. R., Watson, D., & Yoon, K. L. (2023). Biased cognitive control of emotional information in remitted depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal of psychopathology and clinical science, 132(8), 921.
Wen, A., LeMoult, J., McCabe, R., & Yoon, K. L. (2019). Affective flexibility and generalized anxiety disorder: valence-specific shifting difficulties. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 32(5), 581-593.
Wen, A., & Yoon, K. L. (2019). Depression and affective flexibility: A valence-specific bias. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 123, 103502.
I am interested in sociocultural factors that influence emotional information processing and regulation in internalizing disorder etiology and treatment outcome. My prior work on the stigma showed that people of minority ethnic and racial backgrounds exhibited elevated self-stigma and reduced treatment seeking behaviors. Moreover, I co-authored a randomized anti-stigma intervention trial, which found that the intervention effectively decreased mental health stigma and increased resiliency and coping skills. I am currently involved in a NIMH-funded clinical trial at UCLA that uses machine learning and digital phenotyping to advance personalized psychological treatments for individuals of ethnic and racial minority backgrounds.
Wen, A., Wolitzky-Taylor, K., Gibbons, R. D., & Craske, M. (2023). A randomized controlled trial on using predictive algorithm to adapt level of psychological care for community college students: STAND triaging and adapting to level of care study protocol. Trials, 24(1), 1-19.
Dobson, K. S., Markova, V., Wen, A., & Smith, L. M. (2021). Effects of the Anti-stigma Workplace Intervention “Working Mind” in a Canadian Health-Care Setting: A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Immediate Versus Delayed Implementation. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 66(5), 495-502.
Wen, A., & Szeto, A. (2017). An Examination of Depression Self-Stigma in Asian and Caucasian Canadians. Journal of Young Investigators, 34, 17-25.