engleski

The effects of emotion regulation on relationship satisfaction: Actor-partner interdependence modelling

While a substantial number of studies investigated the effects of different forms of emotional regulation on various interpersonal outcomes, only few studies investigated their effects on romantic partner’s relationship satisfaction. These studies found that proneness to use cognitive reappraisal has positive effects while expressive suppression has negative effects on both one’s own and partner’s satisfaction. Importantly, no studies explored the effects of partner-reported usage of the two emotion regulation strategies on the relationship satisfaction. We tested the hypotheses about the effects of reappraisal and suppression on relationship satisfaction on a sample of 205 romantic couples by using round- robin design and actor-partner interdependence modelling (APIM). Significant positive actor and partner effects of self-reported reappraisal in both genders were obtained. Therefore, both women and men higher on appraisal were more satisfied with their relationships, and their partners were more satisfied. When it comes to partner-reports, only women’s actor effect was obtained. Thus, women’s relationship satisfaction was higher if they were observed by their partners as being higher on reappraisal. Expectedly, partner effects showed that one’s satisfaction was positively related to one’s report of partner’s reappraisal. Regarding suppression, significant negative actor effect was found for women self-report only, and partner effects of self-reported suppression were absent for both genders. Thus, women but not men who self-reported higher suppression were themselves less satisfied with relationships, while one’s self-reported suppression failed to predict partner’s satisfaction. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the effects of reappraisal, partner reports of suppression failed to show not just actor effects, but also any partner effects, which means that one’s satisfaction was also not related to one’s report of partner’s suppression. Implications of self and partner reports of emotion regulation for the understanding of the mechanisms that mediate its effects on relationship satisfaction are discussed.

emotion regulation ; reappraisal ; suppression ; relationship satisfaction ; actor-partner interdependence model (APIM)

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