Emotion Regulation Strategies

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247166659
Emotion regulation strategies in relation

to personality characteristics indicating
low and high self-control of emotions
Article in Personality and Individual Differences · November 1999

DOI: 10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00040-9
CITATIONS READS
29 146
2 authors:
Marja Kokkonen Lea Pulkkinen

University of Jyväskylä University of Jyväskylä
18 PUBLICATIONS 120 CITATIONS 223 PUBLICATIONS 6,909 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Human development from middle childhood to middle adulthood: Growing up to be

middle-aged View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Marja Kokkonen on 24 October 2014.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the original document
and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Personality and Individual Dierences 27 (1999) 913±932
www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
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 dierent ®ndings for women are discussed in relation to the literature on gender dierences 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: kokkonen@psyka.jyu.® (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
914 M. Kokkonen, L. Pulkkinen / Personality and Individual Dierences 27 (1999) 913±932
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, èmotions' denote brief event-speci®c aective states as distinct from broader,
longer-lasting `moods' (Ekman, 1994; Kagan, 1994; Watson, & Clark, 1994). However,
although èmotion' and `mood' are often de®ned dierently, Lazarus (1991) recognized the
possibility of their not being clearly separate terms. We use the concepts of èmotion
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), èmotion regulation/management skills' (Thompson, 1994) or
èmotion 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 problem-
focused 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
M. Kokkonen, L. Pulkkinen / Personality and Individual Dierences 27 (1999) 913±932 915
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
dierences 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 aect 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
dierentiate 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 dierences 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
theoretical description the model of emotional and behavioral regulation focuses on the
immediate eects on the current mood. Therefore, an interesting question arises as to what
may be the long-term eects; 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 aect, 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 dierent 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 behaviorally-
assessed inhibitory control (Kochanska, Murray, & Coy, 1997), lack of control (Pulkkinen,
1982; Caspi, Henry, McGee, Mott, & 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, dierent 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
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 `Ìs sometimes very
touchy and sometimes a really nice chum''; (3) Inattentiveness Ð a single variable `Ìs 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, `Ìs 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 `Àlways tries to be friendly to others'' and `Ìs considered reliable'' (Cronbach's a
was 0.79).
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 (`Ì am trying to
restrain too positive or too negative moods'' and `Ì am trying to restrain my negative mood so
that it will not cause diculties'') 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 dierence in
Dampening; women restrained their positive moods in order to better concentrate, whereas
men had a tendency to restrain their negative moods to avoid diculties.
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. `Ònce in a while I can't control the urge to strike another person''), two items (e.g.
`Ì 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 re-
spective factor are shown in boldface. D means Dampening, R Repair and M Maintenance in the Meta-Regulation
Scale
Items Factors men Factors

(n=140) women
(n=128)
I II III I II III
(1) I am trying to restrain too positive or too negative moods (D) 39 40 ÿ07 10 12 73
(2) I am imagining something better to improve my mood (R) 69 30 20 73 07 23
(3) I am trying to restrain my negative mood so that it will not cause diculties (D) 20 96 17 60 14 29
(4) I would not want to change this mood (M) ÿ08 03 86 ÿ05 69 ÿ07
(5) It is so high that I am trying to bring myself down to better concentrate (D) 49 03 ÿ01 14 ÿ04 42
(6) I am planning positive things to keep my mood going (R) 64 31 20 75 00 01
(7) I am not trying to change it because I believe it is important to experience (M) 27 08 45 21 63 16
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. `Ì feel embarrassed to have to
complain when I get too little change back'', `Ì have diculty 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. `Ì 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. `Ì
sometimes feel panicky'', `Ì often have aches in my shoulders and in the back of my neck'', `Ì
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. `Òften 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. `Ì 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. `Ì have often gone against my parents' wishes'', `Ìn 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 dierences 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 dicult decision, I prefer to postpone it even if I
have all the facts'' (rotated factor loading was 0.68), `Ì tend to postpone unpleasant tasks even
if I could perform them immediately'' (0.63) and `Ì 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 dicult 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 coecients 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 Shee's test of pairwise
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: chi-
square (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 dierence 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 F
Low self-control of emotions

ÿ0.23 a

(1) Aggression ÿ0.14 0.00 ÿ0.09 0.10 0.02
(2) Impulsivity ÿ0.12 0.04 ÿ0.14 0.08 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.03
(3) Anxietyd ÿ0.39 b ÿ0.31 b

ÿ0.06 0.05 ÿ0.22 ÿ0.04
ÿ0.23 a ÿ0.22 a

(4) Emotional ambivalence 0.02 0.02 ÿ0.17 ÿ0.01

(5) Unsuccessful control ÿ0.19 ÿ0.26 ÿ0.18 ÿ0.10 0.16 ÿ0.06
High self-control of emotions

(6) Inhibition of aggressiond

ÿ0.34 ÿ0.13 ÿ0.21 ÿ0.02 ÿ0.22 0.00
(7) Cognitive control 0.12 0.10 0.09 0.01 0.18 0.12
0.27 b 0.24 a

(8) Socialization ÿ0.08 ÿ0.01 0.18 ÿ0.01
a
Diers from women's correlations at p<0.05.
b
c
d
Variances unequal.
negatively to the intervening emotion regulation strategies of Repair and Dampening, the
former diering signi®cantly from the correlations obtained for women. With a signi®cant sex
dierence, 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 dierent 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 dierences 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 self-
control 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 4 5 6 7 8

(1) Aggression ± ÿ0.09 0.25 0.23 0.04 ÿ0.38 ÿ0.41 ÿ0.10
Inhibition of aggressiond 0.17 a

(2) ± ÿ0.20 0.27 0.29 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.13 ÿ0.03
0.09a

(3) Impulsivity 0.39 ± 0.08 ÿ0.21 ÿ0.27 ÿ0.09 ÿ0.20
Anxietyd 0.55 b

(4) 0.42 0.28 ± 0.39 ÿ0.38 ÿ0.47 0.08
0.59 c 0.18 b 0.61 b

(5) Emotional ambivalence 0.25 ± ÿ0.15 ÿ0.34 ÿ0.05
ÿ0.26 a ÿ0.43 b

(6) Socialization ÿ0.49 ÿ0.44 ÿ0.57 ± 0.30 0.15
ÿ0.54 c ÿ0.72 c

(7) Cognitive control ÿ0.32 ÿ0.14 ÿ0.50 0.43 ± 0.12
(8) Unsuccessful control 0.06 0.16 ÿ0.16 ÿ0.01 0.07 ÿ0.03 0.11 ±
a
b
c
d
Variances unequal.
922
M. Kokkonen, L. Pulkkinen / Personality and Individual Dierences 27 (1999) 913±932
Table 4

Correlations between variables at age 8 and at age 36: for men (N=140) and women (N=128). p<0.001; p<0.01; p<0.05
Age 8 Repair Dampening Maintenance Aggression Impulsivity Anxietyd Emotional Socialization Cognitive
ambivalence control
Boys Men at age 36

Aggressiond

ÿ0.19 ÿ0.14 ÿ0.05 0.25 0.17 0.02 ÿ0.09 ÿ0.31 0.02

Shifting moods ÿ0.20 ÿ0.18 ÿ0.05 0.27 0.19 0.07 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.35 0.03
Inattentivenessd ÿ0.06a 0.18 b

ÿ0.19 ÿ0.11 0.07 0.16 0.06 ÿ0.24 ÿ0.03
0.24 a ÿ0.17 a

Anxiety ÿ0.09 ÿ0.03 ÿ0.10 0.06 0.18 0.18 ÿ0.23
0.34 a

Compliance 0.24 0.05 0.09 ÿ0.22 ÿ0.20 ÿ0.07 0.07 0.00

Emotional stability 0.15 0.01 ÿ0.04 ÿ0.24 ÿ0.11 0.01 0.09 0.28 ÿ0.06

Constructiveness 0.08 ÿ0.03 0.00 ÿ0.22 0.00 ÿ0.18 ÿ0.02 0.21 0.09
Girls Women at age 36

Aggression ÿ0.11 ÿ0.14 ÿ0.22 ÿ0.02 ÿ0.03 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.19 0.08

Shifting moods ÿ0.01 ÿ0.13 ÿ0.18 0.04 0.12 ÿ0.04 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.24 ÿ0.05
Inattentiveness 0.01 0.18 0.08 ÿ0.16 0.18 ÿ0.01 ÿ0.07 ÿ0.15 0.12
Anxiety 0.03 0.03 0.07 0.00 0.05 0.01 0.00 ÿ0.04 0.09
Compliance 0.04 ÿ0.03 0.00 0.00 ÿ0.13 ÿ0.04 0.04 0.10 ÿ0.06
Emotional stability 0.07 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.06 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.10 0.06 0.06 ÿ0.03
Constructiveness 0.03 ÿ0.13 ÿ0.10 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.05 ÿ0.06 0.02 0.08 ÿ0.06
a
b
c
Diers from women's correlations at p<0.001. .
d
Variances unequal.
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 dierences 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
eect 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, Schee's tests of pairwise comparisons were used.
They revealed that the High Repair group diered 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 dier 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 eect of Repair was found (F(2, 126)=6.62, p=0.002). The results of Shee's post hoc
analyses revealed that the High Repair group diered 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 dier 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
diered signi®cantly from the Low (F(1, 73)=29.41, p<0.000) and Medium (F(1, 94)=12.13,
p=0.001) Repair groups. Again, the Low and Medium Repair groups did not dier 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 self-
control 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 diered 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 dier 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 self-
control at age 8 and low self-control at age 36.
Fig. 2. Interaction between an emotion regulation strategy (Repair) at age 36 and self-control of emotions: low self-
control 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 aect 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 dierent 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
Fig. 3. A mediator model for men.

to characteristics indicating low self-control of emotions in adulthood. Correspondingly, adults'

high use of emotion regulation strategies is associated with characteristics indicating high self-
control of emotions in adulthood. The results were in accordance with the theoretical function
of emotion regulation, according to which eective 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 anxiety-
like 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 dierent 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 dierential continuity both in aggression and anxiety over a
period of 28 years, and furthermore, that there was heterotypic continuity in the low self-
control 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 self-
control 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 dierent 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.
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 dierences in the
regulation of emotion. The dierent 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, ineective emotion
regulation strategies, mask their emotions to a greater degree (Gross, & John, 1998) than
women. As for the use of dierent 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 dierences in general emotionality, too, suggests that males and
females live dierent 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 eective 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
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 self-
control 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.
References
Af Klinteberg, B., Schalling, D., & Magnusson, D. (1986). Self-report assessment of personality traits. Data from the
KSP inventory on a representative sample of normal male and female subjects within a developmental project.
(Report No. 64). Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm.
Af Klinteberg, B., Schalling, D., & Magnusson, D. (1990). Childhood behavior and adult personality in male and
female subjects. European Journal of Personality, 4, 57±71.
Avia, M. D. (1997). Personality and positive emotions. European Journal of Personality, 11, 33±56.
Blier, M. J., & Blier-Wilson, L. A. (1989). Gender dierences in self-rated emotional expressiveness. Sex Roles, 21,
287±295.
BrandstaÈtter, H., Grossman, M., & Filipp, G. (1992). Gefuhle im alltag: berichtet von frauen und mannen
(Emotions in everyday life: reported by women and men). Zeitschrift fur Sozialpsychologie, 23, 64±76.
Brown, K., Covell, K., & Abramovitch, R. (1991). Time course and control of emotion: age dierences in under-
standing and recognition. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 37, 273±287.
Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63,
452±459.
Calkins, S. D. (1994). Origins and outcomes of individual dierences in emotion regulation. In N. A. Fox, The
development of emotion regulation: biological and behavioral considerations (pp. 53±72). Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press (Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, Serial No. 240).
Campos, J. J., & Barrett, K. C. (1984). Toward a new understanding of emotions and their development. In C. E.
Izard, J. Kagan, & R. B. Zajonc, Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 229±263). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Campos, J. J., Campos, R. G., & Barrett, K. C. (1989). Emergent themes in the study of development and emotion
regulation. Developmental Psychology, 25, 394±402.
Canals, J., Marti-Henneberg, C., Fernandez-Ballart, J., Cliville, R., & Domenech, E. (1992). Scores on the state±
trait anxiety inventory for children in a longitudinal study of pubertal Spanish youth. Psychological Reports, 71,
503±512.
Caspi, A., Henry, B., McGee, R. O., Mott, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1995). Temperamental origins of child and ado-
lescent behavior problems: from age three to ®fteen. Child Development, 66, 55±68.
Catanzaro, S. J., & Mearns, J. (1990). Measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation: initial scale
development and implications. Journal of Personality Assessment, 54, 546±563.
Cicchetti, D., Ackerman, B. P., & Izard, C. E. (1995). Emotions and emotion regulation in developmental psycho-
pathology. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 1±10.
Cicchetti, D., Ganiban, J., & Barnett, D. (1991). Contributions from the study of high-risk populations to under-
standing the development of emotion regulation. In J. Garber, & K. A. Dodge, The development of emotion regu-
lation and dysregulation (pp. 15±18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crittenden, P. M. (1992). Treatment of anxious attachment in infancy and early childhood. Development and
Psychopathology, 4, 575±602.
Derryberry, D., & Rothbart, M. K. (1984). Emotion, attention, and temperament. In C. F. Izard, J. Kagan, &
R. B. Zajonc, Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 133±166). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Karbon, M., Murphy, B. C., Wosinski, M., Polazzi, L., Carlo, G., & Juhnke, C.
(1996). The relations of children's dispositional prosocial behavior to emotionality, regulation, and social func-
tioning. Child Development, 67, 974±992.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Losoya, S. (1997a). Emotional responding: regulation, social correlates, and sociali-
zation. In P. Salovey, & D. J. Sluyter, Emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications
(pp. 129±163). New York: BasicBooks.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B., Karbon, M., Maszk, P., Smith, M., O'Boyle, C., & Suh, K. (1994). The
relations of emotionality and regulation to dispositional and situational empathy-related responding. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 776±797.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Schaller, M., Miller, P., Carlo, G., Poulin, R., Shea, C., & Shell, R. (1991). Personality
and socialization correlates of vicarious emotional responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61,
459±470.
Eisenberg, N., Guthrie, I. K., Fabes, R. A., Reiser, M., Murphy, B. C., Holgren, R., Maszk, P., & Losoya, S.
(1997b). The relations of regulation and emotionality to resiliency and competent social functioning in elementary
school children. Child Development, 68, 295±311.
Eisenberg, N., & Okun, M. A. (1996). The relations of dispositional regulation and emotionality to elders' empathy-
related responding and aect while volunteering. Journal of Personality, 64, 157±183.
Ekman, P. (1994). Moods, emotions of traits. In Ekman, & R. J. Davidson, The nature of emotion (pp. 56±58). New
York: Oxford University Press.
Friedman, A., & Pines, A. (1991). Sex dierences in gender-related childhood memories. Sex Roles, 25, 25±32.
Fujita, F., Diener, E., & Sandvik, E. (1991). Gender dierences in negative aect and well-being: the case for
emotional intensity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 427±434.
Gilligan, S. G., & Bower, G. H. (1984). Cognitive consequences of emotional arousal. In C. E. Izard, J. Kagan, &
R. B. Zajonc, Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 547±588). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Grolnick, W. S., Bridges, L. J., & Connell, J. P. (1996). Emotion regulation in two-year-olds: strategies and
emotional expression in four contexts. Child Development, 67, 928±941.
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (1995). Facets of emotional expressivity: three self-report factors and their correlates.
Personality and Individual Dierences, 19, 555±568.
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (1998). Mapping the domain of expressivity: multimethod evidence for a hierarchical
model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 170±191.
Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Hiding feelings: the acute eects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 95±103.
Hartup, W. W., & van Lieshout, C. F. M. (1995). Personality development in social context. Annual Review of
Psychology, 46, 655±687.
Hoyle, R. H., & Panter, A. T. (1995). Writing about structural equation models. In R. Hoyle, Structural equation
modeling: concepts, issues, and applications (pp. 158±176). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Huesmann, L. R., & Eron, L. D. (1989). Individual dierences and the trait of aggression. European Journal of
Personality, 3, 95±106.
JoÈreskog, K. G., & SoÈrbom, D. (1989). LISREL 7: a guide to the program and applications (2nd ed.). MI: SPSS
Incorporation.
Kagan, J. (1971). Change and continuity in infancy. New York: Wiley.
Kagan, J. (1994). On the nature of emotion. In N. A. Fox, The development of emotion regulation: biological and
behavioral considerations (pp. 7±24). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (Monographs of the Society for
Research in Child Development, 59, Serial No. 240).
Karoly, P. (1993). Mechanisms of self-regulation: a systems view. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 23±52.
King, L. A., & Emmons, R. A. (1990). Con¯ict over emotional expression: psychological and physical correlates.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 864±877.
King, L. A., & Emmons, R. A. (1991). Psychological, physical, and interpersonal correlates of emotional expressive-
ness, con¯ict, and control. European Journal of Personality, 5, 131±150.
Kochanska, G., Murray, K., & Coy, K. C. (1997). Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood:
from toddler to early school age. Child Development, 68, 263±277.
Kopp, C. B. (1982). Antecedents of self-regulation: a developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 199±
214.
Kopp, C. B. (1987). The growth of self-regulation: caregivers and children. In N. Eisenberg, Contemporary topics in
developmental psychology (pp. 34±56). New York: Wiley.
Kopp, C. B. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: a developmental view. Developmental Psychology,
25, 343±354.
Kring, A. M., & Gordon, A. H. (1998). Sex dierences in emotion: expression, experience, and physiology. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 686±703.
Labouvie-Vief, G., Hakim-Larson, J., DeVoe, M., & Schoeberlein, S. (1989). Emotions and self-regulation: a life -
pan view. Human Development, 32, 279±299.
Labouvie-Vief, G., Hakim-Larson, J., & Hobart, C. J. (1987). Age, ego level, and the life-span development of cop-
ing and defence processes. Psychology and Aging, 2, 286±293.
Lazarus, R. S. (1990). Constructs of the mind in adaptation: cognitive-relational theory of emotion. In N. L. Stein, B.
Leventhal, & T. Trabasso, Psychological and biological approaches to emotion (pp. 3±19). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaption. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Manstead, A. S. R. (1991). Emotion in social life. Cognition and Emotion, 5, 353±362.
Mayer, J. D., & Gaschke, Y. N. (1988). The experience and meta-experience of mood. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 55, 102±111.
Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1995). Emotional intelligence and the construction and regulation of feelings. Applied
and Preventive Psychology, 4, 197±208.
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.
McConatha, J. T., Lightner, E., & Deaner, S. L. (1994). Culture, age and gender as variables in the expression of
emotions. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 9, 481±488.
NorusÏ is, M. J. (1992). SPSS for Windows: professional statistics (Release 5.). Chicago: SPSS Incorporation.
Pulkkinen, L. (1982). Self-control and continuity from childhood to late adolescence. In B. P. Baltes, & O. G. Brim
Jr., Life-span development and behavior, Vol. 4 (pp. 63±105). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Pulkkinen, L. (1987). Oensive and defensive aggression in humans: a longitudinal perspective. Aggressive Behavior,
13, 197±212.
Pulkkinen, L. (1988). A two-dimensional model as a framework for interindividual dierences in social behavior. In
D. H. Saklofske, & S. B. G. Eysenck, Individual dierences in children and adolescents (pp. 27±37). London:
Hodder and Stoughton Transactions. USA.
Pulkkinen, L. (1995). Behavioral precursors to accidents and resulting physical impairment. Child Development, 66,
1660±1679.
Pulkkinen, L. (1996). Female and male personality styles: a typological and developmental analysis. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1288±1306.
Pulkkinen, L., & PitkaÈnen, T. (1993). Continuities in aggressive behavior from childhood to adulthood. Aggressive
Behavior, 19, 249±263.
Roberts, W., & Strayer, J. (1996). Empathy, emotional expressiveness, and prosocial behavior. Child Development,
67, 449±470.
Rosenbaum, M. (1980). A schedule for assessing self-control behaviors: preliminary ®ndings. Behavioral Therapy,
11, 109±121.
Rothbart, M. K., & Ahadi, S. A. (1994). Temperament and the development of personality. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 103, 55±66.
Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., Fox, N. A., & Calkins, S. D. (1995). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoo-
lers' social adaptation. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 49±62.
Rutter, M. (1989). Pathways from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 23±51.
Snell Jr., W. E., Miller, R. S., Belk, S. S., Garcia-Falconi, R., & Hernandez-Sanchez, J. E. (1989). Men's and
women's emotional disclosures: the impact of disclosure recipient, culture, and the masculine role. Sex Roles, 21,
467±486.
Sprecher, S., & Sedikides, C. (1993). Gender dierences in perception of emotionality: the case of close heterosexual
relationships. Sex Roles, 28, 511±530.
Stoppard, J. M., & Gruchy, C. G. (1993). Gender, context, and expression of positive emotion. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 143±150.
Thayer, R. E., Newman, J. R., & McClain, T. M. (1994). Self-regulation of mood: strategies for changing a bad
mood, raising energy, and reducing tension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 910±925.
Thomas, S. P. (1989). Gender dierences in anger expression: health implications. Research in Nursing and Health,
12, 389±398.
Thompson, R. A. (1990). Emotion and self-regulation. In R. A. Thompson, Socioemotional development (Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation, Vol. 36 (pp. 367±467). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: a theme in search of de®nition. In N. A. Fox, The development of
emotion regulation: biological and behavioral considerations (pp. 25±52). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
(Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, Serial No. 240).
Wagsta, G. F., & Rowledge, A. M. (1995). Stoicism: its relation to gender, attitudes toward poverty, and reactions
to emotive material. The Journal of Social Psychology, 135, 181±184.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). Emotions, moods, tracts and temperaments: conceptual distinctions and emipiri-
cal ®ndings. In P. Ekman, & R. J. Davidson , The nature of emotions (pp. 89±93). New York: Oxford University
Press.
Zeitlin, H. (1986). The natural history of psychiatric disorder in children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zeman, J., & Garber, J. (1996). Display rules for anger, sadness, and pain: it depends on who is watching. Child
Development, 67, 957±973.

Emotion Regulation Strategies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Emotion Regulation Strategies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:

Emotion regulation strategies in relation

Article in Personality and Individual Differences · November 1999

Marja Kokkonen Lea Pulkkinen

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Human development from middle childhood to middle adulthood: Growing up to be

Emotion regulation strategies in relation to personality

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-14-2602-861; fax: +358-14-2602-841.

2.2. Measures and variables

2.2.2. Variables at age 8

2.2.3. Variables at age 36

Items Factors men Factors

2.3. Data analysis

3.1. Emotion regulation strategies and self-control of emotions

The relationships between adults' emotion regulation strategies and personality

Self-control of emotions Emotion regulation strategies

Repair Dampening Maintenance

Low self-control of emotions

High self-control of emotions

3.2. Emotion regulation strategies and continuity in the self-control of emotions

Behavioral characteristics in childhood correlated with adult personality characteristics

Boys Men at age 36

Girls Women at age 36

Fig. 3. A mediator model for men.

to characteristics indicating low self-control of emotions in adulthood. Correspondingly, adults'

You might also like