Keep It In, or Let It Out? Emotion Regulation and Perceived Stress Across Individualistic and Collectivistic...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cross-cultural Psychology
• Stress and Coping

Background:

• Previous research on emotion regulation strategies and stress often relied on single-country samples, limiting generalizability across cultural groups.
• Understanding cultural variations in emotion regulation is crucial for developing effective stress management interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine cultural differences in the use of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal.
• To investigate the association between these emotion regulation strategies and perceived stress across collectivist and individualist cultures.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 183 adult participants from diverse collectivist (e.g., China, Japan, Nigeria) and individualistic cultures (e.g., UK, US, Germany).
• Participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Perceived Stress Scale online.

Main Results:

• Cognitive reappraisal use did not significantly differ between collectivist and individualist groups.
• Significant differences were observed in the use of expressive suppression between the cultural groups.
• No cultural differences were found in the association between either emotion regulation strategy and perceived stress.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that cognitive reappraisal may be a transcultural strategy for managing stress.
• The lack of cultural differences in the predictive role of emotion regulation strategies on stress supports a universal perspective on stress coping mechanisms.