RESUMO

BACKGROUND: Emotion regulation, the process by which individuals manage and modify their emotional experiences, expressions, and responses to adaptively navigate and cope with various situations, plays a crucial role in daily life. Our study investigates the variations in emotion regulation strategies among individuals with different attachment styles (AS). Specifically, we examine how individuals with secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful attachment styles effectively utilize cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to regulate their emotions. METHODS: A total of n = 98 adults were instructed to attend, reappraise, or suppress their emotions while viewing negative and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in an experimental emotion regulation task. After completing the task, participants rated the valence and arousal elicited by the images. Attachment styles were measured using the ECR-12 questionnaire and then categorized into four AS. RESULTS: Our study revealed that individuals with secure AS (n = 39) effectively reduced displeasure through cognitive reappraisal but experienced levels of displeasure with expressive suppression. Anxious AS (n = 16) individuals successfully reduced displeasure using cognitive reappraisal but struggled to regulate arousal and effectively use expressive suppression. Avoidant AS (n = 24) individuals could reduce displeasure with both strategies but experienced high arousal during suppression attempts. Fearful AS (n = 19) individuals effectively regulated both displeasure and arousal using either strategy. However, Secure AS individuals showed superior reappraisal efficacy, significantly reducing arousal levels compared to the Fearful AS group. Both Secure and Avoidant AS groups experienced higher valence during reappraisal relative to a baseline, indicating a decrease in displeasure. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with different AS exhibit variations in the effectiveness of their use of emotion regulation strategies. Our findings reinforce the significance of AS in shaping emotion regulation processes and emphasize the need for tailored approaches to support individuals with different attachment orientations.

Assuntos

Regulação Emocional , Apego ao Objeto , Humanos , Regulação Emocional/fisiologia , Masculino , Feminino , Adulto Jovem , Adulto , Ansiedade/psicologia , Emoções , Nível de Alerta/fisiologia

RESUMO

Introduction: Emotion Regulation plays a crucial role in human's daily lives. Extensive research has shown that people with different attachment orientations exhibit divergencies in how they perform emotion regulation strategies. Methods: 44 adults performed an experimental emotion regulation task in which they were instructed to attend, reappraise, or suppress their emotions while viewing negative and neutral images taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Afterward, participants rated valence, arousal, and emotional dominance elicited by the images. Additionally, attachment orientations were measured using the ECR-12 questionnaire. Results: Results showed a relationship between attachment avoidance and the level of arousal during the reappraisal condition; specifically, the higher attachment avoidance levels, the greater the emotional intensity during the implementation of cognitive reappraisal strategy. Such results suggest an association between failing in downregulate intense emotions using cognitive reappraisal when there are higher levels of attachment avoidance. Consistently, we also found that lower dominance during reappraisal was associated with more levels of avoidance. Conclusion: These results indicate that people with higher levels of attachment avoidance experience difficulties when using the cognitive reappraisal strategy to reduce the emotional impact produced by negative emotional stimuli. Our findings reinforce the idea that avoidant people experience high physiological activation when experience emotions.

RESUMO

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) is widely used to assess the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies to regulate negative emotions. The present study evaluates the psychometric properties, reliability and validity of a Chilean adaptation of the ERQ in a large sample of 1543 participants aged between 18 and 87 (38% male, 62% female). The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed the expected two-factor structure and factorial invariance in relation to gender. Results also indicated adequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent and predictive validity in predicting posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth six months after the first measurement in a subsample of students exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of reappraisal was positively associated with general well-being, whereas the use of suppression was positively associated with depressive symptomatology. In terms of posttraumatic consequences, the use of reappraisal was negatively associated with posttraumatic symptomatology and positively associated with posttraumatic growth six months later; in turn, suppression was positively associated with posttraumatic symptomatology and negatively associated with posttraumatic growth six months later. This study demonstrates that the ERQ is a valid and reliable instrument to measure emotional regulation strategies in Chilean adults.

Assuntos

COVID-19 , Regulação Emocional , Humanos , Masculino , Adulto , Feminino , Adolescente , Adulto Jovem , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Regulação Emocional/fisiologia , Psicometria/métodos , Reprodutibilidade dos Testes , Chile , Pandemias , Inquéritos e Questionários

RESUMO

While many studies have examined the impact of forced migration on Venezuelan migrants in Latin America, to date scholars have not examined the effect of certain coping mechanisms, namely social support and emotion regulation. Using data from 386 Venezuelan migrants living in Peru (M = 20.22 years, SD = 1.33, 46.4% women), we investigated whether perceived social support from three different sources (family, friends, and significant other) correlated with emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and suppression) while controlling for the type of cohabitation and time of residence. The results (1) confirmed the originally proposed internal structure of the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, showing reliability and validity even in a sample of migrants. Findings demonstrated that (2) perceived social support from family positively predicted cognitive reappraisal strategy when including friends and significant other as covariates; (3) Venezuelans who have resided longer in Peru compared to more recent migrants used cognitive reappraisal strategy at a higher rate despite perceiving low family social support; (4) Venezuelans who resided in Peru for a longer period of time reported higher suppression strategy use when having low significant other support; and (5) there were gender differences regarding cognitive reappraisal as a dependent variable. More specifically, in men, family was a better predictor than friend or significant other support, while among women, family and significant other had the biggest impact. These results demonstrate the importance of social support elements and time of residence on the healthy management of emotions under difficult circumstances, such as forced migration.

RESUMO

Previous research on culture and emotion regulation has focused primarily on comparing participants from individualistic and collectivistic backgrounds (e.g., European Americans vs. Asians/Asian Americans). However, ethnic groups that are equally individualistic or collectivistic can still vary notably in cultural norms and practices regarding emotion regulation. The present study examined the association between expressive suppression and well-being in two collectivistic ethnic groups (i.e., Chinese Americans and Mexican Americans). Results indicated that suppression of positive emotions was related to lower hedonic and eudaimonic well-being among Mexican Americans but not among Chinese Americans. Moreover, post hoc analysis revealed that Mexican Americans with a stronger collective identity reported lower eudaimonic well-being when suppressing positive emotions than Mexican Americans with a weaker collective identity. Suppression of negative emotions, by contrast, was unrelated to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being for both ethnic groups. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of taking into account the role that culture and the characteristics of emotion (e.g., valence) may play in the link between emotion regulation and well-being.