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Socioeconomic Status, Emotion Regulation, and Mental Health: Toward an Integrative Neurocognitive Framework

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Cuiwei Lu¹ (), Hairuo He², Hannah Hao³; ¹Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA, ²Department of Psychiatry, and National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China, ³Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a well-established determinant of mental health, with individuals of lower SES showing more depression and stress-related symptoms. Yet the neurocognitive mechanisms linking SES and mental health remain unclear. Emotion regulation (ER) plays a critical role in mental health and relies heavily on prefrontal functions that may show SES differences. Examining SES, ER, and mental health together offers a powerful framework for understanding how structural disadvantage “gets under the skin.” This theoretical review synthesizes current evidence on (a) the relationship between SES and ER, and (b) the relationship between ER and mental health when SES is considered. Across studies, lower-SES individuals tend to use fewer adaptive ER strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, and rely more on suppression, self-blame, and withdrawal. However, empirical tests of ER as a mediator or moderator in the SES–mental health link remain scarce and methodologically heterogeneous. We propose three conceptual models: (1) ER as a mediator, whereby SES shapes ER tendencies that influence mental health; (2) ER as a moderator, in which ER buffers or exacerbates SES-related stress effects; and (3) a common-cause model, positing that ER profiles and mental health symptoms co-emerge from low-SES environments. We discuss shared correlates and causes involving chronic stress, family climate, and brain development. Together, this framework integrates cognitive, affective, and socioeconomic perspectives on mental health disparities and calls for multi-level approaches to clarify how SES shapes emotion regulation and resilience. These insights can inform interventions that address structural inequities while strengthening individual emotion-regulation capacity.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions