Relationship Between Habitual Use and Degree of Emotion Regulation: Age Differences in Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression

BACKGROUND: The present study examined age differences in and the relationship between two indices of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression: the degree of emotion regulation and the habitual use of emotion-regulation strategies. METHOD: In total, 101 younger and 99 older participants were included in this study. The degree of emotion regulation was measured using an experimental task in which participants were presented with negative or positive pictures and required to regulate their emotions. Habitual use of emotion regulation strategies was measured using an emotion regulation questionnaire. RESULTS: The results showed that younger adults regulated their emotions to a greater extent than older adults in both reappraisal and suppression. Younger adults were more likely to use reappraisal than were older adults, although there were no age differences in the use of suppression. No significant correlations were found between the degree of emotion regulation and the habitual use of emotion regulation strategies. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that age differences in emotion regulation depend on the regulation strategy and that the degree of emotion regulation and habitual use of emotion regulation strategies are independent and quite different indicators in nature.