Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 22, 2025
08:09
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
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Emotion Regulation in Couples Across Adulthood.
1School of Education and Social Policy and (by courtesy) Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
Annual Review of Developmental Psychology
|June 28, 2024
Summary
Couples
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Intimate relationships are central to emotional experiences.
- Adult development research increasingly focuses on socioemotional factors.
- Understanding emotion regulation in couples is crucial for well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review research on couples' emotion regulation across adulthood.
- To explore the developmental trajectory of emotion regulation in relationships.
- To examine how couples' emotion regulation impacts functioning and health with age.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual review of existing research.
- Integration of socioemotional selectivity theory.
- Life-span developmental perspective on couples' emotion regulation.
Main Results:
- Couples' emotion regulation is dynamic, coregulatory, bidirectional, and bivalent.
- Emotion regulation in couples may shift from individual to shared focus ('me to us').
- Older adults may exhibit superior emotion regulation within couples compared to younger adults.
Conclusions:
- Couples' emotion regulation becomes more vital, effective, and consequential with age.
- Enhanced emotion regulation in later life couples supports relationship outcomes, well-being, and health.
- Future research should further investigate the 'me to us' shift and its implications.
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