Emotion regulation strategies and psychosocial well-being in adolescence

To study whether and how emotion regulation strategies are associated with adolescents' well-being, 633 Italian adolescents completed a survey that measured, using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003), the strategies of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES), and their relationship with several well-being measures. Factor analysis and reliability results confirmed the validity of ERQ to assess adolescents' regulation strategies. Correlation and regression results showed that a greater reliance on CR was positively associated with better well-being outcomes for most indicators, especially Life satisfaction, Social support perception and Positive affect; greater preference for ES conversely was associated with lower well-being level for all indicators, including Psychological health, Emotional loneliness, and Negative affect. Neither gender nor age differences were observed for CR nor ES; CR and ES were positively correlated with each other. Both analysis of variance and regression results showed gender to be a significant factor for well being indicators (e.g., males' higher Positive affect and Life satisfaction than females'), whereas age was associated with differences in Psychological health only, with 16-year olds reporting the lowest health, and 14-year olds the highest. The findings overall show that adolescents' well-being is related to preferred emotion regulation strategies, mirroring associations found in the adult population. The study results also suggest the need to further explore this relationship in adolescence

Work stress and cancer researchers : an exploration of the challenges, experiences and training needs of UK cancer researchers.

Work stress is a significant issue for many UK healthcare professionals, in particular those working in the field of oncology. However, there have been very few attempts to explore the challenges, experiences or training needs of researchers working in cancer research. In doing so, we will be better positioned to support and develop these researchers. 18 UK oncology researchers from a variety of backgrounds took part in a semi-structured interview. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis identified two overarching themes: logistical research issues (workload, accessing/ recruiting participants, finances) and sensitive research issues (emotional demands, professional boundaries, sensitivity around recruitment). One cross-cutting theme, supportive strategies (support and training, coping mechanisms), was seen to influence both logistical and sensitive research issues. While further research is needed to fully understand the causes and impact of work stress on cancer researchers, three specific issues were highlighted: emotional demands are relevant to quantitative and mixed methods researchers as well as those engaged in qualitative research; the researchers’ background (experience; clinical/non-clinical) was influential and an exploration of effective coping strategies is required; and there is a clear need for adequate support systems and training to be available, particularly for early career researchers.</p

Loneliness and Social Internet Use: Pathways to Reconnection in a Digital World?

With the rise of online social networking, social relationships are increasingly developed and maintained in a digital domain. Drawing conclusions about the impact of the digital world on loneliness is difficult because there are contradictory findings, and cross-sectional studies dominate the literature, making causation difficult to establish. In this review, we present our theoretical model and propose that there is a bidirectional and dynamic relationship between loneliness and social Internet use. When the Internet is used as a way station on the route to enhancing existing relationships and forging new social connections, it is a useful tool for reducing loneliness. But when social technologies are used to escape the social world and withdraw from the “social pain” of interaction, feelings of loneliness are increased. We propose that loneliness is also a determinant of how people interact with the digital world. Lonely people express a preference for using the Internet for social interaction and are more likely to use the Internet in a way that displaces time spent in offline social activities. This suggests that lonely people may need support with their social Internet use so that they employ it in a way that enhances existing friendships and/or to forge new ones

(How) do medical students regulate their emotions?

BACKGROUND: Medical training can be a challenging and emotionally intense period for medical students. However the emotions experienced by medical students in the face of challenging situations and the emotion regulation strategies they use remains relatively unexplored. The aim of the present study was to explore the emotions elicited by memorable incidents reported by medical students and the associated emotion regulation strategies. METHODS: Peer interviewing was used to collect medical students’ memorable incidents. Medical students at both preclinical and clinical stage of medical school were eligible to participate. In total 104 medical students provided memorable incidents. Only 54 narratives included references to emotions and emotion regulation and thus were further analyzed. RESULTS: The narratives of 47 clinical and 7 preclinical students were further analyzed for their references to emotions and emotion regulation strategies. Forty seven out of 54 incidents described a negative incident associated with negative emotions. The most frequently mentioned emotion was shock and surprise followed by feelings of embarrassment, sadness, anger and tension or anxiety. The most frequent reaction was inaction often associated with emotion regulation strategies such as distraction, focusing on a task, suppression of emotions and reappraisal. When students witnessed mistreatment or disrespect exhibited towards patients, the regulation strategy used involved focusing and comforting the patient. CONCLUSIONS: The present study sheds light on the strategies medical students use to deal with intense negative emotions. The vast majority reported inaction in the face of a challenging situation and the use of more subtle strategies to deal with the emotional impact of the incident. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0832-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Can empathy lead to emotional exhaustion in teachers? The mediating role of emotional labor

Objectives: The present study was designed to examine the links between empathy, emotional labor (both surface and deep acting), and emotional exhaustion as well as determine if emotional labor mediates the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion in teachers. It was assumed that emotional labor can take two opposite directions (positive mood induction and negative mood induction). Thus, the additional aim of the study was to analyze the mediating role of mood regulation strategies in the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion. Materials and Methods: A sample of 168 teachers from Łódź and its surroundings completed a set of questionnaires: Emotional Labor Scale; Mood Regulation Scales, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Empathic Sensitivity Scale. Results: The results provided mixed support for the hypotheses indicating that both types of emotional labor, negative mood induction and emotional exhaustion were positively intercorrelated. Moreover, deep acting was a significant mediator in the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion. The analyzed link was also mediated by negative mood induction, whereas positive mood induction did not emerge as a significant mediator. Conclusions: The study provided insight into the role of empathy and emotional labor in the development of teacher burnout. It also confirmed that deep acting and negative mood induction mediate the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion in teachers

Men's and women's lay theories of emotion

The chapter discusses the extent to which emotion stereotypes and norms, as reflected in lay theories of emotion, vary according to gender. It will be argued that two sets of stereotypes (and associated norms) are activated when people conceptualize how and why men and women experience, express, and regulate (specific) emotion(s). On the one hand people have emotion(s) scripts that specify likely or typical causes of felt emotion(s), event appraisal, regulation processes, etc.; on the other hand, people have stereotypical beliefs about men and women, masculinity and femininity. It is the interaction between the two sets of theories that might result in the stereotypical belief that women are emotional and men are rational, or in other, more specific gendered-emotion beliefs. The study of lay theories of emotion --i.e., the complex set of beliefs that people have about emotion, both in general and in relation to specific situational contexts-- allows us to investigate how this interaction works. The chapter discusses lay theories of emotion as they emerge from a set of studies that focused on various emotion constellations --jealousy, envy, anger, pride, joy, sadness. In these studies, women and men were asked to imagine, for a member of their own sex, which “reactions” are elicited by a (specified) emotion antecedent, and which reactions are “adequate” in that context. In sum, the studies focused on (a) ‘descriptive’ and (b) ‘prescriptive’ emotion norms. The chapter will focus on: (i) which norms emerge, and what (c) discrepancies exist between a and b; (ii) to what extent, and for what specific emotion component or aspect, a,b, and c are gender-stereotyped (e.g., are women attributed more intrapunitive emotions than men are?; is expression of felt emotions thought to be more adequate for women than for men?); (iii) whether men and women endorse different norms. The congruency between subjects’ theories, and gendered stereotipic beliefs (e.g., in comparison to men, women are expected to be less apt to regulate their felt emotions, to have a greater knowledge of emotion, to express less socially sanctioned emotions) will be discussed. The conclusions to be drawn from these comparisons are extended by a discussion of other results obtained both in the same set of studies (e.g., subjects answered questions about the extent to which one feels conflicting or unclear emotions), and in other studies, including various intra- and inter-cultural replications (e.g., reactions were attributed to a member of the opposite sex; subjects reported actual events rather than judging vignettes) that addressed relevant questions for the issue of lay theories

Emotion regulation and its correlates in bank service jobs

To what extent, in what context and with what psychological consequences do service workers regulate their emotions so that they are in line with their job requirements? To answer these questions 112 Italian men and women working at various banks at the counter or as consultants were administered a questionnaire comprising several scales, and questions on sociodemographic and work-related variables. The results showed that Emotional labour (Hochschild 1983; Grandey 2000) is a relevant variable of bank service jobs: Workers perform both (a) surface acting, i.e., control the expression of their emotions vis-à-vis a client so that they are contextually appropriate (for example, they smile to an annoying client), and (b) deep acting, i.e., try to actually feel the required emotion; (c) feeling genuine emotions, i.e., effortlessly feeling the required emotions, also is a frequent experience of bank employees. Emotional exhaustion was correlated positively with surface acting, and negatively with genuine emotions; it implied less Life satisfaction, and Positive affect, but more Negative affect. Workers that reported enjoying a role balance were more satisfied with their life than those who experienced role overload, and were less emotionally exhausted. No significant differences between men and women were observed on most measures, whereas job-experience, and duration and frequency of client-interactions influenced Deep acting, Emotional exhaustion, and Role overload

Strategies and expectations in parents' socialization of children's emotion expression

The study analyzed parents' emotion socialization strategies when their children express negative emotions (sadness and anger) in situations in which the child’s expression could hurt other individuals that are present. Influence of parent’s and children’s gender on socialization strategies, and of children’s age were the independent variables considered. Subjects were 267 Italian adults, 141 mothers and 126 fathers, whose children - attending local schools - were 4/5 or 8/9 years-old (N = 107 and 160), both male and female (N= 131 and 136). Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that presented Ss with two hypothetical stimulus events, one assumed to elicit sadness, the other one anger in a child protagonist C - e.g., in the presence of C’s mother/father, a friend of C unintentionally drops C’s ice-cream; C feels angry. Subjects - asked to assume that C would be their child, and to identify themselves with the parent in the event - answered 2 open and 1 closed question related to their predictions about C's expressive behavior, and their reactions toward C's expression of negative emotions. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses showed that parents tend to adopt a variety of strategies - e.g., ‘explaining’ the event to C; suggesting a solution to the problem (e.g., getting another ice-cream); asking C to change attitude toward the event; soothing C; etc. Both parents’ predictions, and their reactions, proved to be influenced by gender (both child’s and parent’s), and by the child’s age. For instance, parents expected older children to express negative emotions less frequently than younger children, but also expected girls to show anger much less than boys; fathers (but not mothers) suggested a solution more often for anger than for sadness events. A comparison of these results with those obtained in a previous study (Cigala & Zammuner 1998) shows that some socialization process aspects are emotion-specific, i.e. due to the nature of the elicited emotion rather than to the stimulus-event kind. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their implications as regards emotion socialization practices, and their impact on a child's well-being