Emotion regulation strategies in relation to personality characteristics indicating low and high self-control of emotions

Personality and Individual Di€erences 27 (1999) 913±932

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Emotion regulation strategies in relation to personality characteristics indicating low and high self-control of emotions Marja Kokkonen*, Lea Pulkkinen Department of Psychology, University of JyvaÈskylaÈ, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40351 JyvaÈskylaÈ, Finland Received 26 February 1998; received in revised form 23 November 1998; accepted 12 January 1999

Abstract The study was part of the JyvaÈskylaÈ Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, in which children's (196 boys, 173 girls) behavioral characteristics indicating the self-control of emotions were studied at age 8 using teacher ratings. At age 36, 140 men and 128 women ®lled in several inventories, including the Meta-Regulation Scale [Mayer, J. D., & Stevens, A. A. (1994). An emerging understanding of the re¯ective (meta-)experience of mood. Journal of Research in Personality, 28, 351± 373] and the Karolinska Scales of Personality [Af Klinteberg, B., Schalling, D., & Magnusson, D. (1986). Childhood behavior and adult personality in male and female subjects. European Journal of Personality, 4, 57±71]. The study examined the relationships between the adults' emotion regulation strategies (ERS) of Repair, Maintenance and Dampening and concurrent personality characteristics. The question of the heterotypic continuity of the self-control of emotions, and of how the use of ERS might account for this was also examined. Correlational analysis, multivariate analysis of variance and path analysis showed, for men only, that low use of ERS relates to low self-control of emotions, whereas high use relates to high self-control. Moreover, the self-control of emotions showed heterotypic continuity over a period of 28 years, which can partly be explained by the mediating role of ERS. Individuals with low Repair had characteristics indicating low self-control of emotions at both ages. Conversely, individuals with high Repair showed high self-control of emotions at both ages. The somewhat di€erent ®ndings for women are discussed in relation to the literature on gender di€erences in emotionality and emotion regulation. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Emotion regulation; Emotion regulation strategies; Emotionality; Self-control; Heterotypic continuity; Longitudinal study; LISREL

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-14-2602-861; fax: +358-14-2602-841. E-mail address: [email protected].® (M. Kokkonen) 0191-8869/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 9 1 - 8 8 6 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 4 0 - 9

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1. Introduction Emotion regulation means the processes of initiating, maintaining and modulating the occurrence, intensity or duration of internal feeling states and physiological processes related to emotions (Thompson, 1994). The adaptive objective of emotion regulation is twofold. Firstly, it is needed to prevent stressful levels of both negative and positive emotions (Kopp, 1989; Grolnick, Bridges, & Connell, 1996) and maladaptive behavior (Cicchetti, Ganiban, & Barnett, 1991; Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995). Secondly, it is crucial in emotional openness and ¯exibility, guided by responsibility and self-re¯ection (Labouvie-Vief, Hakim-Larson, DeVoe, & Schoeberlein, 1989). Emotion regulation has both short-term and long-term consequences (Catanzaro, & Mearns, 1990). The consequences can be either positive; for instance, a reduction in the level of one's negative emotions (Eisenberg et al., 1997b) and success in human relationships (Mayer, & Gaschke, 1988; Manstead, 1991; Eisenberg, Fabes, & Losoya, 1997a); or negative, such as an impoverished emotional life (Gilligan, & Bower, 1984) and physical or mental malaise (King, & Emmons, 1990; Gross, & Levenson, 1997). In this ®eld the problem of de®nition is evident: many terms are used interchangeably. Generally, `emotions' denote brief event-speci®c a€ective states as distinct from broader, longer-lasting `moods' (Ekman, 1994; Kagan, 1994; Watson, & Clark, 1994). However, although `emotion' and `mood' are often de®ned di€erently, Lazarus (1991) recognized the possibility of their not being clearly separate terms. We use the concepts of `emotion regulation' and `self-control of emotion' interchangeably, since both terms have been commonly used to refer to a capacity for self-regulation in the domain of emotion (Karoly, 1993). In this study, we also recognize the existence of three types of emotion regulation processes suggested by Eisenberg et al. (1997a) and Eisenberg (1998): regulation of emotion (e.g. emotion regulation strategies, cognitive restructuring), regulation of emotion-related behavior (e.g. emotional expressiveness) and regulation of the emotion-eliciting situation (e.g. planning, direct problem solving). We focused on the regulation of emotion, and therefore the other two types of emotion regulation are not dealt with in our study. The various means by which emotions may be regulated are most often referred to in the literature as `coping responses' (Campos, & Barrett, 1984), `coping strategies' (Labouvie-Vief, Hakim-Larson, & Hobart, 1987), `emotion regulation/management skills' (Thompson, 1994) or `emotion regulation strategies' (Brown, Covell, & Abramovitch, 1991; Thompson, 1994; Calkins, 1994; Grolnick et al., 1996). According to Thompson (1990), emotion regulation includes attentional, approach/avoidance and inhibitory mechanisms. Because emotion regulation has been studied empirically only for a short time, little is known about the speci®c types of behavior which have been hypothesized as involved in emotion regulation. However, in the light of the existing literature it seems that emotions are regulated either unconsciously (automatically) or consciously (Karoly, 1993; Mayer, & Stevens, 1994; Mayer, & Salovey, 1995), by attenuating, disguising, maintaining or amplifying an ongoing emotion (Cicchetti et al., 1995). Generally, emotion regulation strategies can be divided into problemfocused or emotion-focused strategies, e.g. avoidance and denial (Lazarus, 1990; Cicchetti et al., 1995). Studies of the development of emotion regulation among young children have revealed that emotion regulation strategies can be further classi®ed, for example, as cognitive (e.g. thinking about something good that has happened to you) vs. situational (e.g. going and seeing

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someone you like) (Brown et al., 1991); as attentional (e.g. visual and motor exploration); symbolic (e.g. self-directed statements such as `she will be right back'); or active (e.g. active play with a toy) vs. passive (e.g. looking at a toy) (Grolnick et al., 1996). There is considerably less knowledge about adults' attempts to in¯uence their emotions (Gross, & Levenson, 1997). In recent years, there has been growing interest in factors associated with individual di€erences in emotion regulation. Empirical ®ndings suggest that both physiological (Derryberry, & Rothbart, 1984) and cognitive maturation and experience (Kopp, 1982, 1989; Rothbart, & Ahadi, 1994); early interactions with care-takers (Kopp, 1987, 1989; Crittenden, 1992; Cicchetti et al., 1995; Rubin, Coplan, Fox, & Calkins, 1995) and social context (Campos, Campos, & Barrett, 1989; Grolnick et al., 1996; Zeman, & Garber, 1996) play a signi®cant role in emotion regulation. There is considerably less research on the in¯uence of personality or behavioral characteristics on emotion regulation. Despite the review of Avia (1997), which clearly shows how several factorial models have provided consistent evidence for a link between a€ect and personality, few studies have directly examined the relationship between individual characteristics and emotion regulation. One valuable exception is the work of Eisenberg et al. (1996), who found that socially constructive children showed a high degree of emotional (i.e. attentional) regulation. Furthermore, Kopp (1987) stressed the importance of compliance with respect to social standards as one aspect of emotion regulation. And Mayer and Stevens (1994), too, argued that personality contributes to changes in emotion. They developed the Meta-Regulation Scale (MRS) to di€erentiate the emotion regulation strategies called Repair and Dampening (the so-called intervening strategies, which have in common that they are used in the active change of emotion) and Maintenance (used for maintaining the current emotion) from each other. According to them, ``the way in which one regulates and evaluates one's moods may be related to a number of personality factors'' (1994; p. 353). In addition, Calkins (1994) recognized the importance of behavioral traits for the various ways of regulating emotions. She pointed out that behavioral traits (e.g. attentiveness, sociability, resistance/reactivity in response to frustration) serve as internal sources of individual di€erences in emotion regulation. The relationship between individual characteristics and the individual's general ability to control his or her emotions also gains support from the model of Pulkkinen (1995, 1996) of emotional and behavioral regulation (previously known as a two-dimensional model of impulse control (Pulkkinen, 1982, 1988). The model consists of two orthogonal dimensions: expression versus inhibition of behavior and low versus high self-control of emotions. They de®ne four prototypes of behavior: type A (e.g. aggression) and type D (e.g. anxiety) which have in common the low self-control of emotions and type B (e.g. constructiveness) and type C (e.g. compliance) which have in common the high self-control of emotions. Types A and B are characterized by social activity, and types C and D by social passivity. In addition to the suggested relationship between behavioral characteristics and emotional regulation, there is another theoretical assumption implicit in the model of emotional and behavioral regulation (Pulkkinen, 1995, 1996): low and high self-control of emotions result from two general emotional processes called neutralization (an inhibitory process) and intensi®cation (an enhancing process), which both require a certain level of cognitive capacity. However, the model does not specify how these theoretical processes lead to the neutralization of emotions, e.g. by what kind of strategies the emotions are neutralized. Furthermore, in its

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theoretical description the model of emotional and behavioral regulation focuses on the immediate e€ects on the current mood. Therefore, an interesting question arises as to what may be the long-term e€ects; that is, the role of emotion regulation processes in the long run; for example, in relation to the continuity of self-control of emotions. The present study had two main goals. First, it was designed to examine the relationship between adults' conscious emotion regulation strategies and their concurrent personality characteristics. We expected the emotion regulation strategies of Repair, Dampening and Maintenance (Mayer, & Stevens, 1994) to re¯ect the theoretical process of neutralization (Pulkkinen, 1995). On the basis of ®rst, the theoretical de®nitions of emotion regulation, which emphasize the adaptive role of emotion regulation in preventing both stressful levels of emotion (Grolnick et al., 1996) and maladaptive behavior (Cicchetti et al., 1991, 1995); and second, of the recent empirical ®ndings on the association between adults' personal distress and low levels of regulatory skills (Eisenberg et al., 1994; Eisenberg, & Okun, 1996), we hypothesized that low use of emotion regulation strategies is connected to concurrent low self-control of emotions as measured by the higher amounts of aggression, anxiety and emotional ambivalence. Emotional ambivalence re¯ects an inability to cope with the standard limitations of emotion (Mayer, & Salovey, 1995). It is regarded as an index of low self-control of emotions due to its positive associations with daily negative a€ect, obsessive±compulsive tendencies, depression, paranoid ideation and phobic anxiety (King, & Emmons, 1991). Correspondingly, we expected high use of emotion regulation strategies to be positively related to concurrent high self-control of emotions as measured by socialization, cognitive control and the inhibition of aggression. Second, we studied the use of emotion regulation strategies as a possible explanation for heterotypic continuity in the self-control of emotions over time. Heterotypic continuity means, according to Kagan (1971), that a particular attribute at one age is predictive of a phenotypically di€erent but theoretically reasonable attribute at a later age, which is similar to the Caspi (1998, p. 349) de®nition of coherence. Therefore, behaviors may change in form, still re¯ecting the same basic process (Rutter, 1989). Earlier ®ndings concerning behaviorallyassessed inhibitory control (Kochanska, Murray, & Coy, 1997), lack of control (Pulkkinen, 1982; Caspi, Henry, McGee, Mott, & Silva, 1995), aggression (Huesmann, & Eron, 1989; Pulkkinen, & PitkaÈnen, 1993; Hartup, & van Lieshout, 1995) and anxiety (Zeitlin, 1986; Canals, Marti-Henneberg, Fernandez-Ballart, Cliville, & Domenech, 1992) show that there is considerable stability in self-control. We assumed that low use of emotion regulation strategies accounts for heterotypic continuity in the low self-control of emotions, as indicated by two markers, di€erent in their nature: aggression (externalized behavior) and anxiety (internalized behavior). We also expected high use of emotion regulation strategies to account for heterotypic continuity in the high self-control of emotions, as indicated by constructive prosocial behavior and compliance. 2. Method 2.1. Participants The participants in the study consisted of 128 women and 140 men aged 35±36 years (hereafter: age 36) from the ongoing JyvaÈskylaÈ Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social

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Development. The original sample (173 girls and 196 boys, ethnically Finnish, with an average age of 8 years, 3 months) included 12 school classes drawn randomly from downtown and suburban schools of JyvaÈskylaÈ, a medium-sized town in central Finland. The results of sample attrition analysis showed that the participants were representative of the original random sample. Compared to the data derived from Statistics Finland (1994), the participants were also representative of their age cohort born in Finland in 1959 with respect to marital status (10% of the women and 16% of the men were single, 56% of women and 59% of men were married); number of children; level of education (45% of women and 23% of men quali®ed for university studies); and unemployment (14% of women and 17% of men were unemployed or redundant). 2.2. Measures and variables 2.2.1. Measures For the present study we used data collected at ages 8 and 36, in 1968 and 1995, respectively. One of the methods at age 8 was teacher rating of the participants' behavioral characteristics (Pulkkinen, 1982, 1987), which was used in the present study. At age 36, the participants were interviewed by 14 specially trained interviewers. One interview lasted about 3 h, and it was tape recorded. During the semistructured interview, the participants completed several structured self-reports concerning, for instance, emotion regulation (Mayer, & Stevens, 1994), emotional ambivalence (King, & Emmons, 1990), self-control (Rosenbaum, 1980) and aggression (Buss, & Perry, 1992). At the end of the interview, Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP; Af Klinteberg, Schalling, & Magnusson, 1986, 1990) assessing, for example, impulsivity, aggression, inhibition of aggression and anxiety were given to each participant to be completed at home and sent back in a prepaid envelope. 2.2.2. Variables at age 8 Variables for behavioral characteristics, based on standardized z-scores and drawn from teacher rating, re¯ected the model of emotional and behavioral regulation (Pulkkinen, 1995, 1996). Teachers were asked to rate each pupil in the class on 33 items using the scale from 0=teacher has never observed the characteristics in question to 3=the characteristic in question is very prominent. Variables for low self-control included: (1) Aggression Ð a sum score of four variables, for instance, ``Hurts another child when angry, e.g. by hitting, kicking, or throwing something'' (Cronbach's a was 0.86); (2) Shifting moods Ð a single variable ``Is sometimes very touchy and sometimes a really nice chum''; (3) Inattentiveness Ð a single variable ``Is unsteady and lacks concentration in his/her work and attentiveness''; and (4) Anxiety Ð a sum score of three variables, for instance, ``Starts crying easily if others treat him/her nastily'' (Cronbach's a was 0.69). The following variables marked high self-control: (5) Compliance Ð a sum score of three variables, for instance, ``Is peaceable and patient'' (Cronbach's a was 0.84); (6) Constructiveness Ð a sum score of three variables, for instance, ``Thinks that if one negotiates, everything will be better'' (Cronbach's a was 0.84); and (7) Emotional Stability Ð a sum score of variables ``Always tries to be friendly to others'' and ``Is considered reliable'' (Cronbach's a was 0.79).

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2.2.3. Variables at age 36 The variables were based on items of inventories, mostly on the KSP (Af Klinteberg et al., 1986, 1990). For all variables, a 4-point response scale was used: 1=describes me very badly, 2=describes me quite badly, 3=describes me quite well, 4=describes me very well. (1) Emotion regulation was studied using a 7-item scale including ®ve original regulation items from the subscales of the Mood Repair, Dampening and Maintenance of Meta-Regulation Scale (MRS; Mayer, & Stevens, 1994). In addition, there were two items for Dampening (``I am trying to restrain too positive or too negative moods'' and ``I am trying to restrain my negative mood so that it will not cause diculties'') created for the present study. The focus of these additional items was the restraining of negative moods; something which the MRS ignored. In instruction, the participants were asked to review their current mood; describing their thoughts and feelings and the in¯uence of these on them in the present situation. A principal axis factor analysis (PAF) with varimax rotation, computed separately by the sex of the participant, resulted in three factors (Table 1). For women, they explained 47.3% and for men 53.2% of the total variance. The ®rst factor, labelled `Repair', tapped active change of mood in a more positive direction. The second factor for women and third factor for men, labelled `Maintenance', included two items, designed to assess the degree to which the present mood was being maintained. The third factor for women and second factor for men, labelled Dampening, described the dimension of restraint of moods. There was a sex di€erence in Dampening; women restrained their positive moods in order to better concentrate, whereas men had a tendency to restrain their negative moods to avoid diculties. Unweighted composites were computed as a sum score from the standardized individual variables shown in boldface in Table 1. Cronbach's as were 0.73 for Repair, 0.56 for Maintenance and 0.48 Dampening; the latter for women. (2) Aggression was a sum score of twelve items. Six items were drawn from the Aggression Questionnaire by Buss and Perry (1992) (e.g. ``Once in a while I can't control the urge to strike another person''), two items (e.g. ``I sometimes feel the desire to tease, to annoy or to attack another person without reason'') by Table 1 The varimax rotated factor loadings for emotion regulation at age 36. Items included in the sum scores for the respective factor are shown in boldface. D means Dampening, R Repair and M Maintenance in the Meta-Regulation Scale Items

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Factors men (n=140)

Factors women (n=128)

I

I

II III

II

III

I am trying to restrain too positive or too negative moods (D) 39 40 ÿ07 10 12 73 I am imagining something better to improve my mood (R) 69 30 20 73 07 23 I am trying to restrain my negative mood so that it will not cause diculties (D) 20 96 17 60 14 29 I would not want to change this mood (M) ÿ08 03 86 ÿ05 69 ÿ07 It is so high that I am trying to bring myself down to better concentrate (D) 49 03 ÿ01 14 ÿ04 42 I am planning positive things to keep my mood going (R) 64 31 20 75 00 01 I am not trying to change it because I believe it is important to experience (M) 27 08 45 21 63 16

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Pulkkinen (1987) and four items from the Verbal Aggression Scale of the KSP (Af Klinteberg et al., 1986, 1990) (e.g. ``When I get mad, I say nasty things''). Cronbach's a was 0.80. (3) Inhibition of aggression was a sum score of nine items (e.g. ``I feel embarrassed to have to complain when I get too little change back'', ``I have diculty turning someone down when asked a favor, even when I do not feel like doing it'') derived from the Inhibition of Aggression Scale of the KSP. Cronbach's a was 0.72. (4) Impulsivity was a summed score of nine items (e.g. ``I often throw myself into things too hastily'') from the Impulsivity Scale of the KSP. Cronbach's a was 0.74. (5) Anxiety was a sum score of 30 items included in the subscales of Somatic Anxiety, Muscular Tension and Psychic Anxiety of the KSP, e.g. ``I sometimes feel panicky'', ``I often have aches in my shoulders and in the back of my neck'', ``I often worry about things that other people look upon as tri¯es''. Cronbach's a was 0.91. (6) Emotional ambivalence was a sum score of seven items derived from the Ambivalence Over Expressiveness Questionnaire (AEQ; King, & Emmons, 1990). Four items pertained to wanting to express emotion and being unable to do so (e.g. ``Often I'd like to show others how I feel, but something seems to be holding me back'') and three items to expressing emotion and later regretting it (e.g. ``I worry that if I express negative emotions such as fear and anger, other people will not approve of me''). Cronbach's a was 0.72. (7) Socialization was a sum score of twenty items (e.g. ``I have often gone against my parents' wishes'', ``In school I was sometimes sent to the principal for cutting up'') derived from the Socialization Scale of the KSP. Cronbach's a was 0.86. (8) Self-control was measured using a shortened, 17-item version of the Self-Control Schedule (SCS) of Rosenbaum (1980). A principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation was ®rst conducted for men and women to reveal possible sex di€erences in the factor structure of the scale. Because the solutions were virtually identical, data were combined across sexes. PAF with varimax rotation yielded two factors that explained 20.3% of the total variance. In the ®rst factor, labelled Unsuccessful Control, the following items had the highest loadings: ``When I am faced with a dicult decision, I prefer to postpone it even if I have all the facts'' (rotated factor loading was 0.68), ``I tend to postpone unpleasant tasks even if I could perform them immediately'' (0.63) and ``I need outside help to get rid of some of my bad habits'' (0.52). The highest loadings in the second factor, entitled Cognitive Control, belonged to the following items: ``When I am faced with a dicult problem, I try to approach it in a systematic way'' (rotated factor loading was 0.49), ``When I am faced with a number of things to do, I usually plan my work'' (0.44), ``By changing my way of thinking, I am often able to change my feelings about almost anything'' (0.39), ``When I plan to work, I remove everything that is not relevant to my work'' (0.39). Cronbach's as for the summed composite scores were 0.70 for Unsuccessful Control and 0.53 for Cognitive Control. 2.3. Data analysis Analysis of data was conducted using an SPSS for Windows software package (NorusÏ is, 1992). Pearson product±moment correlations were computed to examine interrelationships between variables. LISREL 7.20 (JoÈreskog, & SoÈrbom, 1989) was used to test the equality of the correlation coecients between men and women. The role of emotion regulation strategies in relation to heterotypic continuity in the self-control of emotions was studied by means of two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), followed by She€e's test of pairwise

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comparisons and path analysis using LISREL 7.20. The method of estimation was maximum likelihood, as suggested by Hoyle, and Panter (1995). According to their recommendation, estimation was based on covariance matrices. In order to calculate covariances, missing values were treated pairwise. Among a number of indices of overall ®t, we used the following: chisquare (w 2), goodness-of-®t index (GFI) and root mean square residual (RMR). 3. Results 3.1. Emotion regulation strategies and self-control of emotions The relationships between adults' emotion regulation strategies and personality characteristics indicating low and high self-control of emotions in adulthood, were mostly signi®cant for men. For women, the correlations were in the same directions as for men for the most part, but they did not reach statistical signi®cance (Table 2). The correlations for men con®rmed most of our expectations. As Table 2 shows for men, anxiety, indicating low self-control of emotions correlated negatively with all three emotion regulation strategies, Repair, Dampening and Maintenance. Speci®cally, there was a signi®cant sex di€erence in the correlations with Repair and Dampening. In addition, emotional ambivalence and Unsuccessful Control, also indices of low self-control of emotions, related Table 2 Correlations between emotion regulation strategies and self-control of emotions at age 36. M represents male partici  pants (N=140), and F female participants (N=128). p<0.001; p<0.01; p<0.05 Self-control of emotions

Emotion regulation strategies Repair

Dampening

Maintenance

M

F

M

F

M

Low self-control of emotions (1) Aggression (2) Impulsivity (3) Anxietyd (4) Emotional ambivalence (5) Unsuccessful control

ÿ0.14 ÿ0.12  ÿ0.39  b  ÿ0.23  a ÿ0.19

0.00 0.04 ÿ0.06 0.02  ÿ0.26 

ÿ0.09 ÿ0.14  ÿ0.31  b  ÿ0.22  a ÿ0.18

0.10 0.08 0.05 0.02 ÿ0.10

ÿ0.23  a ÿ0.05  ÿ0.22  ÿ0.17 0.16

High self-control of emotions (6) Inhibition of aggressiond (7) Cognitive control (8) Socialization

ÿ0.34  0.12  0.27  b

ÿ0.13 0.10 ÿ0.08

ÿ0.21 0.09  0.24  a

ÿ0.02 0.01 ÿ0.01

ÿ0.22  0.18 0.18

a



Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.05. Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.01. c Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.001. d Variances unequal. b

F 

0.02 ÿ0.03 ÿ0.04 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.06



0.00 0.12 ÿ0.01

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negatively to the intervening emotion regulation strategies of Repair and Dampening, the former di€ering signi®cantly from the correlations obtained for women. With a signi®cant sex di€erence, aggression correlated negatively only with Maintenance. In contrast, socialization, a marker of high self-control of emotions, correlated positively with all three emotion regulation strategies. The correlations with Repair and Dampening were signi®cantly di€erent from those obtained for women. Cognitive Control correlated positively only with Maintenance: its correlations with Repair and Dampening were in the hypothesized direction, but they were not signi®cant. Contrary to our expectations, inhibition of aggression correlated negatively with Repair, Dampening and Maintenance. Impulsivity, which indicates low behavioral self-control, did not correlate with emotion regulation strategies. As seen in Table 3, inhibition of aggression did not correlate positively with socialization and Cognitive Control, which indicate high self-control of emotions. Instead, inhibition of aggression correlated positively with emotional ambivalence, anxiety and even with aggression indicating low self-control of emotions. These correlations suggest that the KSP scale labelled Inhibition of aggression measures the suppression of emotions rather than high self-control of emotions. In general, intercorrelations between the personality characteristics at age 36 showed that in men aggression, impulsivity, anxiety and emotional ambivalence correlated positively with each other; but negatively with socialization and Cognitive Control, which in turn correlated positively with each other. Unsuccessful Control did not correlate with any indices of self-control in men. Again, there were a number of statistically signi®cant sex di€erences in the correlations. 3.2. Emotion regulation strategies and continuity in the self-control of emotions Behavioral characteristics in childhood correlated with adult personality characteristics (Table 4), but for men only. Adult aggression was positively related to the markers of low selfcontrol of emotions at age 8 (e.g. aggression, anxiety, shifting moods), which indicates both Table 3 Intercorrelations between the variables at age 36. Correlations for female participants are above and for male par  ticipants below the diagonal. p<0.001; p<0.01; p<0.05 Variable

1

2

3

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

± 0.17 a  0.39   0.42   0.25   ÿ0.49   ÿ0.32  0.06

ÿ0.09 ± 0.09a  0.55  b  0.59  c  ÿ0.26  a  ÿ0.54  c 0.16

0.25  ÿ0.20 ±  0.28  0.18 b  ÿ0.44  ÿ0.14 ÿ0.16

a

Aggression Inhibition of aggressiond Impulsivity Anxietyd Emotional ambivalence Socialization Cognitive control Unsuccessful control

Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.05. Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.01. c Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.001. d Variances unequal. b

4 



0.23   0.27  0.08 ±  0.61  b  ÿ0.57   ÿ0.72  c ÿ0.01

5

6

7

0.04  0.29  ÿ0.21  0.39  ±  ÿ0.43  b  ÿ0.50  0.07

ÿ0.38  ÿ0.01  ÿ0.27   ÿ0.38  ÿ0.15 ±  0.43  ÿ0.03



8 

ÿ0.41  ÿ0.13 ÿ0.09  ÿ0.47   ÿ0.34   0.30  ± 0.11

ÿ0.10 ÿ0.03 ÿ0.20 0.08 ÿ0.05 0.15 0.12 ±

922

Age 8

Repair

Boys Aggressiond Shifting moods Inattentivenessd Anxiety Compliance Emotional stability Constructiveness Girls Aggression Shifting moods Inattentiveness Anxiety Compliance Emotional stability Constructiveness a

Dampening



p<0.01; p<0.05

Anxietyd

Emotional ambivalence

Socialization

0.25   0.27  0.18 b  0.24  a  ÿ0.22   ÿ0.24   ÿ0.22 

0.17 0.19 0.07 0.06 ÿ0.20 ÿ0.11 0.00

0.02 0.07 0.16 0.18 ÿ0.07 0.01 ÿ0.18

ÿ0.09 ÿ0.01 0.06 0.18 0.07 0.09 ÿ0.02

ÿ0.31   ÿ0.35   ÿ0.24   ÿ0.23   0.34  a  0.28  0.21

0.02 0.03 ÿ0.03 ÿ0.17 a 0.00 ÿ0.06 0.09

ÿ0.02 0.04 ÿ0.16 0.00 0.00 ÿ0.06 ÿ0.05

ÿ0.03 0.12 0.18 0.05 ÿ0.13 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.05

ÿ0.05 ÿ0.04 ÿ0.01 0.01 ÿ0.04 ÿ0.10 ÿ0.06

ÿ0.05 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.07 0.00 0.04 0.06 0.02

ÿ0.19  ÿ0.24  ÿ0.15 ÿ0.04 0.10 0.06 0.08

0.08 ÿ0.05 0.12 0.09 ÿ0.06 ÿ0.03 ÿ0.06

Aggression

Men at age 36 ÿ0.19 ÿ0.14 ÿ0.20 ÿ0.18 ÿ0.19 ÿ0.06a ÿ0.09 ÿ0.03  0.24  0.05 0.15 0.01 0.08 ÿ0.03

ÿ0.05 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.11 ÿ0.10 0.09 ÿ0.04 0.00

Women at age 36 ÿ0.11 ÿ0.14 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.13 0.01 0.18 0.03 0.03 0.04 ÿ0.03 0.07 ÿ0.08 0.03 ÿ0.13

ÿ0.22  ÿ0.18 0.08 0.07 0.00 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.10

Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.05. Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.01. c Di€ers from women's correlations at p<0.001. . d Variances unequal. b

p<0.001;

Impulsivity

Maintenance









Cognitive control

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Table 4 Correlations between variables at age 8 and at age 36: for men (N=140) and women (N=128).

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homotypic and heterotypic continuity. Negative correlations between adult aggression and indices of high self-control of emotions at age 8 are also in agreement with the model of emotional and behavioral regulation (Pulkkinen, 1995, 1996). For adult socialization, the correlations were reversed, as could be expected. Compliance at age 8 correlated with the high use of the emotion regulation strategy Repair at age 36; while aggression, shifting moods and inattentiveness at age 8 were related to the low use of Repair at age 36. Shifting moods also correlated with low Dampening of emotions. Thus the correlations showed that there was continuity in the self-control of emotions over 28 years and that emotion regulation strategies in adulthood correlated, even though only slightly, with self-control of emotions in childhood. The signi®cant sex di€erences were few in number. In order to demonstrate the heterotypic continuity in both low and high self-control of emotions, which could already be seen in the correlation matrix, two 3 (groups of High, Medium and Low Repair; the between factor)2 (age 8 and 36; the within factor) MANOVA repeated measurement designs were carried out for men; one for low self-control and the other for high self-control of emotions. In the case of low self-control of emotions, the groups of Low (under the 25th percentile), Medium (from the 25th to the 75th percentile) and High (above the 75th percentile) Repair were compared for characteristics indicating low self-control of emotions: aggression at age 8 and anxiety at age 36. The MANOVA revealed no signi®cant interaction between Repair and low self-control of emotions. As expected, a signi®cant main e€ect of Repair was found (F(2, 126)=12.32, p<0.001). To assess which groups of Repair were responsible for the overall signi®cance, Sche€e's tests of pairwise comparisons were used. They revealed that the High Repair group di€ered signi®cantly from the Low (F(1, 73)=27.16, p<0.000) and Medium Repair groups (F(1, 94)=15.29, p<0.000); whereas the Low and Medium Repair groups did not di€er signi®cantly from each other (F(1, 85)=1.41, p=0.238). The means of the groups showed that low self-control of emotions (aggression at age 8 and anxiety at age 36) was more typical of men with Low Repair than of men with Medium or High Repair. As for high self-control of emotions, the Low, Medium and High Repair groups were compared in respect of compliance at age 8 and socialization at age 36. No signi®cant interaction between Repair and high self-control of emotions emerged, but again, a signi®cant main e€ect of Repair was found (F(2, 126)=6.62, p=0.002). The results of She€e's post hoc analyses revealed that the High Repair group di€ered signi®cantly from the Low (F(1, 73)=14.11, p<0.000) and Medium Repair groups (F(1, 94)=7.96, p=0.006), whereas the Low and Medium Repair groups did not di€er signi®cantly from each other (F(1, 85)=0.63, p=0.428). The means of the groups showed that high self-control of emotions (compliance at age 8 and socialization at age 36) was associated with the level of Repair; the more Repair men used, the higher the means of compliance and socialization. A 3 (groups of High, Medium and Low Repair; the between factor)2 (ages 8 and 36; the within factor) MANOVA repeated measurement design was also carried out to compare the High, Medium and Low Repair groups in respect of high self-control of emotions (compliance) at age 8 and low self-control of emotions (anxiety) at age 36. A signi®cant interaction between Repair and self-control of emotions emerged (F(2, 126)=13.37, p<0.000). Additional 2 (groups)2 (ages) repeated measurement MANOVAs revealed that the High Repair group di€ered signi®cantly from the Low (F(1, 73)=29.41, p<0.000) and Medium (F(1, 94)=12.13,

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p=0.001) Repair groups. Again, the Low and Medium Repair groups did not di€er from each other (F(1, 85)=3.80, p=0.055). The means of the groups suggested that the more Repair men used at age 36, the more compliant they had been at age 8 and the less anxious they were at age 36 (Fig. 1). Correspondingly, the High, Medium and Low Repair groups were compared for low selfcontrol of emotions (aggression) at age 8 and high self-control of emotions (socialization) at age 36. A signi®cant interaction between Repair and the self-control of emotions (F(2, 126)=6.40, p=0.002) emerged (Fig. 2). Additional 2 (groups)2 (ages) repeated measurement MANOVAs revealed that the High Repair group di€ered signi®cantly from the Low (F(1, 73)=11.69, p=0.001) and Medium (F(1, 94)=10.11, p=0.002) Repair groups. The Low and Medium Repair groups did not di€er from each other (F(1, 85)=0.03, p=0.866). The means of the groups indicated that the more Repair 36-year-old men used, the lower in aggression they had been at age 8 and the higher in socialization they were at age 36. The hypothesis of continuity in the self-control of emotions and the mediating role of the emotion regulation strategies in this continuity was further investigated by means of path analysis (LISREL 7.20; JoÈreskog, & SoÈrbom, 1989). The independent variables consisted of all those behavioral characteristics at age 8 (i.e. aggression, shifting moods, inattentiveness and compliance) which correlated signi®cantly with the emotion regulation strategies Repair and Dampening in men at age 36. They also correlated with personality characteristics at age 36. Maintenance was excluded from the analysis, because it did not correlate with behavioral characteristics at age 8. The results are illustrated in Fig. 3. The overall ®t information indicated that the model ®tted the data well: w 2=64.18, df=54, p=0.162, GFI=0.96, RMR=0.07. Fig. 3 shows that shifting moods, a marker of low self-control of emotions at age 8, related indirectly to emotional ambivalence at age 36 via Dampening. From this ®nding, it can be

Fig. 1. Interaction between an emotion regulation strategy (Repair) at age 36 and self-control of emotions: high selfcontrol at age 8 and low self-control at age 36.

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Fig. 2. Interaction between an emotion regulation strategy (Repair) at age 36 and self-control of emotions: low selfcontrol at age 8 and high self-control at age 36.

concluded that individuals with shifting moods were not likely to use Dampening as an emotion regulation strategy at age 36, which might a€ect emotional ambivalence. Shifting moods also had direct links; it was positively related to aggression at age 36 and negatively to socialization at age 36. Compliance, an indicator of high self-control of emotions at age 8, associated negatively with anxiety, inhibition of aggression and Unsuccessful Control at age 36 via Repair. This indicates that compliant individuals who use Repair for emotion regulation at age 36 were not likely to be anxious and unsuccessful in self-control. The negative link between Repair and inhibition of aggression suggested that the emotion regulation processes involved in the inhibition of aggression and in Repair were di€erent by nature. Inhibition of aggression in the KSP refers to an inability to assert oneself (Af Klinteberg et al., 1986) and it seems to re¯ect passive submissiveness; whereas Repair denotes the active, autonomous strategy of changing one's mood in the appropriate direction (Mayer, & Stevens, 1994). Compliance also related directly and positively to socialization at age 36 and negatively to impulsivity at age 36. In addition, inattentiveness at age 8 was positively linked to anxiety at age 36. 4. Discussion The results showed that the emotion regulation strategies Repair and Dampening correlated negatively with such markers of low self-control of emotions as anxiety, emotional ambivalence and Unsuccessful Control in men. In addition, Repair, Dampening and Maintenance correlated positively with socialization, an index of high self-control of emotions. Maintenance correlated further with Cognitive Control, another marker of high self-control of emotions. Our ®ndings suggested that low use of emotion regulation strategies in adulthood is related

M. Kokkonen, L. Pulkkinen / Personality and Individual Di€erences 27 (1999) 913±932

Fig. 3. A mediator model for men.

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927

to characteristics indicating low self-control of emotions in adulthood. Correspondingly, adults' high use of emotion regulation strategies is associated with characteristics indicating high selfcontrol of emotions in adulthood. The results were in accordance with the theoretical function of emotion regulation, according to which e€ective emotion regulation prevents stressful levels of emotions (Kopp, 1989; Grolnick et al., 1996) and maladaptive behavior (Cicchetti et al., 1991, 1995). They also supported earlier empirical ®ndings concerning the relationship between adults' distress and low levels of regulatory skills (Eisenberg et al., 1994; Eisenberg, & Okun, 1996). As expected on the basis of the Mayer and Stevens (1994) study, the intervening emotion regulation strategies Repair and Dampening functioned in the same direction in regard to self-control of emotions, but both strategies also had speci®c associations with personality characteristics. It is also worth noting that in our study the intervening emotion regulation strategies Repair and Dampening seem to be more essential for regulating anxietylike emotions typical of the internalizing problems than for emotions associated with acting-out types of behavior, such as aggression and impulsivity. The associations of Maintenance were weaker and its function seemed somewhat di€erent from the function of the intervening strategies; probably because it is used for maintaining the current mood, not for actively changing it. We also found support for the prediction that self-control of emotions shows heterotypic continuity over time. Consistent with past research (Zeitlin, 1986; Huesmann, & Eron, 1989; Canals et al., 1992; Pulkkinen, & PitkaÈnen, 1993; Hartup, & van Lieshout, 1995), our ®ndings showed that there was signi®cant di€erential continuity both in aggression and anxiety over a period of 28 years, and furthermore, that there was heterotypic continuity in the low selfcontrol of emotions, i.e. from aggression at age 8 to anxiety at age 36 and from anxiety at age 8 to aggression at age 36. Correspondingly, there was heterotypic continuity in the high selfcontrol of emotions, i.e. from compliance at age 8 to socialization at age 36. This heterotypic continuity could be interpreted in terms of the model of emotional and behavioral regulation (Pulkkinen, 1995, 1996). It appeared that both continuities could be at least partially explained by the mediating role of the intervening strategies of Repair and Dampening. Our ®ndings con®rmed the notation of Kopp (1987) of compliance being one of the essential aspects of self-regulation: compliance at age 8 correlated positively with Repair at age 36. In addition, the connection between attention and emotion regulation suggested by Calkins (1994) was veri®ed. Inattentiveness at age 8 correlated negatively with Repair and Dampening at age 36. Constructiveness at age 8 was not associated with any emotion regulation strategies in adulthood, although Eisenberg et al. (1996) found a positive link between concurrent social constructiveness and high emotional (i.e. attentional) regulation with children. In interpreting the correlations showing continuity, attention should be paid to three facts. Firstly, the correlations should be seen in the context of a time span of 28 years. Comparisons with other correlational studies on aggression and anxiety generally show that the longer the period of time between the measurements, the lower the correlations. Secondly, correlations of aggression and anxiety have been in¯uenced by di€erent measurements and data sources. At age 8, aggression and anxiety was measured by teacher rating. At age 36, the data derived from participants' self-reports. Thirdly, it should be kept in mind that our study was based on a random sample of the normal population, not on a clinical sample. Caution should also be exercised to a certain extent in generalizing the present ®ndings.

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Most of them are signi®cant only for men. The correlations for women were statistically nonsigni®cant and the conditions needed for path analysis were not met for women, which seems understandable in the light of the earlier ®ndings concerning sex di€erences in the regulation of emotion. The di€erent behavior of men and women with regard to emotion regulation has been pointed out by Lazarus (1991), who argued that an individual's gender will in¯uence the methods, appraisal and mechanisms for coping with emotions. Investigators have also empirically proved that men ruminate over emotionally upsetting events to a greater extent (McConatha, Lightner, & Deaner, 1994) and together with passive, ine€ective emotion regulation strategies, mask their emotions to a greater degree (Gross, & John, 1998) than women. As for the use of di€erent strategies in changing a bad mood, men have been found to seek pleasurable activities and distractions (e.g. humor, hobbies) or direct tension reduction (e.g. using alcohol or other drugs, having sex), whereas women favored passive mood management (e.g. eating, sleeping) or social support, ventilation and grati®cation (e.g. calling or talking to somebody) (Thayer, Newman, & McClain, 1994). The literature on gender di€erences in general emotionality, too, suggests that males and females live di€erent emotional lives. Compared to males, females have been found to score higher in emotional understanding (Labouvie-Vief et al., 1989); to be generally more emotionally expressive (Blier, & Blier-Wilson, 1989; King, & Emmons, 1990; Sprecher, & Sedikides, 1993; Gross, & John, 1995; Kring, & Gordon, 1998), both in positive emotions (Stoppard, & Gruchy, 1993; Gross, & John, 1998) and negative emotions (Gross, & John, 1998); to be more con®dent (Blier, & Blier-Wilson, 1989) and ambivalent (King, & Emmons, 1990) in expressing emotions and more willing to discuss their emotional experiences with others (Snell, Miller, Belk, Garcia-Falconi, & Hernandez-Sanchez, 1989; Thomas, 1989). Females also tend to have a richer language for emotions than males (BrandstaÈtter, Grossman, & Filipp, 1992) and their childhood memories seem to include more direct expression of emotions (Friedman, & Pines, 1991). The greater emotional intensity of females is also a commonly reported ®nding (Eisenberg et al., 1991; Fujita, Diener, & Sandvik, 1991; BrandstaÈtter et al., 1992; Wagsta€, & Rowledge, 1995; Roberts, & Strayer, 1996; Gross, & John, 1998). The links between individual characteristics, emotion regulation strategies and the continuity of self-control of emotions in women remained unclear and unexplained in the present study; which by drawing the reader's attention to such unanswered questions, will hopefully inspire more research in the future on female emotion regulation. More research is particularly needed on situational and social factors, because women's self-control of emotions may be more internally determined and depend on a number of simultaneous factors, such as emotional state and the context in which emotions are regulated. In addition to its potentially stimulating impact on future research, the present study has other strengths which should be emphasized. First of all, the present study concentrated on the emotion regulation of adults, which has often been left in the shade of studies of emotion regulation in children. Second, our results con®rmed several earlier ®ndings, i.e. the importance of compliance and attention in e€ective emotion regulation. Third, our ®ndings were based on longitudinal data provided by a random sample, which made it possible for us to study the processes underlying adults' emotion regulation. Finally, as a result of our interest in underlying processes, our ®ndings were something new, in that they gave us a better insight

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929

into the twofold role of emotion regulation strategies, showing how they both relate to immediate self-control of emotions and modulate heterotypic continuities of high and low selfcontrol of emotions over time. Acknowledgements The JyvaÈskylaÈ Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, started in 1968, is an ongoing longitudinal study conducted at the Department of Psychology, University of JyvaÈskylaÈ, Finland. This study was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant No. 31121). We thank Ari MaÈkiaho and Asko Tolvanen for their help in statistical analyses and Libbe Kooistra for his comments on the earlier version of this manuscript.

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