Emotion suppression on relationship and life satisfaction: Taking culture and emotional valence into account. (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Han, Da Eun; Park, Haeyoung Gideon; An, Un Ji; Kim, So Eun; Kim, Young-Hoon
• Is Part Of: Journal of social and personal relationships. Volume 39:Number 9(2022)
• Page Start: 2766
• Page End: 2781
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: Emotion suppression -- marital satisfaction -- life satisfaction -- emotional valence; Interpersonal relations -- Periodicals; Social interaction -- Periodicals; 302.05
• DOI: 10.1177/02654075221088521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0265-4075

Abstract

Despite a general consensus on the negative consequences of emotion suppression in Western cultures, cross-cultural explorations to date have yielded many inconsistencies on whether such phenomena can be generalized to Eastern cultures. A set of two studies were conducted to examine the role of emotional valence in resolving such inconsistencies on both relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being. In accordance with our hypotheses, our results consistently revealed that the habitual suppression of emotions was associated with lower relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being, regardless of valence, for American participants. However, the effects of emotion suppression significantly varied by valence for Korean participants, such that suppressing negative emotions was less detrimental than suppressing positive emotions. Overall, the present study highlights the importance of considering the nature of different emotions and cultural contexts when examining the adaptiveness of emotion regulation strategies on individuals' interpersonal and intrapersonal well-being.