Skip to main content
Download PDF

The association between aspects of expressive suppression emotion regulation strategy and rumination traits: a network analysis approach

BMC Psychology volume 12, Article number: 501 (2024) Cite this article

Abstract

Expressive suppression is an abnormal emotion regulation strategy, and its relationship with rumination traits is unclear. In this study with 395 participants in China (33.9% female, Mean age = 21.22, SD = 2.11), we estimated the association between expressive suppression and rumination traits, using the Rumination Response Scale (RRS) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) respectively. Considering there may be complex correlations between different behavioral symptoms of expressive suppression (“Keeping emotions to myself”, “Inhibiting positive emotion responses”, “Controlling emotions by not expressing them”, “Inhibiting negative emotion responses”) and different subtypes of rumination traits, this study employed a symptom-based network analysis method to uncover the differential association between rumination traits and expressive suppression, and the key symptoms linking the two. The study found the S3 node (Controlling emotions by not expressing them) had significant positive correlations with symptom rumination, brooding, and reflective pondering. Among the network, the S3 node acts as a bridge between two variables. This suggests that interventions targeting the S3 symptom may improve rumination traits. The present study was a cross-sectional study with limitations in revealing the causal relationships between expression suppression and rumination traits. Future studies could employ longitudinal tracing methods to explore the relationship between them.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Aberrant emotion regulation processes will impair mental health, disrupt cognitive functioning, and leave individuals unable to cope with challenging work environments [1,2,3,4]. More seriously, it is closely associated with many mental disorders, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorder, substance dependence, and borderline personality disorder [5,6,7,8]. Abnormal emotion regulation may manifest itself in the individual’s use of abnormal emotion regulation strategies. According to The Process Model of Emotion Regulation, five emotion regulation strategies can be employed in the process of emotion regulation: situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression [9]. Among these strategies, the expressive suppression strategy has a negative regulatory effect and may exacerbate negative emotions or impair cognitive functioning [10].

Expressive suppression is a response-focused strategy that involves continuously inhibiting emotion expression behavior to reduce subjective emotional experience [11]. For example, refraining from crying when feeling sad or smiling when feeling angry. This strategy has the following different behavioral symptoms [10, 12, 13]. The metacognitive belief that the expression suppression strategy is effective is the most obvious behavioral symptom for individuals who adopt this strategy. In other words, individuals employing the expression suppression strategy believed that suppressing emotional expression would control emotions [10, 14]. In fact, while the expressive suppression strategy may reduce the negative emotional experiences at the subjective level of individuals, studies have shown that it is ineffective in reducing emotional activation at the physiological level [15,16,17]. This may be due to the fact that expressive suppression strategy takes up additional cognitive resources, and high loads of cognitive resources are positively correlated with higher levels of physiological activation. Furthermore, it may even enhance emotional physiological responses, such as increasing skin electrical levels and pulse blood volume amplitude [18].

Expressive suppression strategy also has other behavioral symptoms, such as emotional introversion. This leads individuals to be less likely to seek social support or to choose alternative and rationalized forms of emotional expression. Previous studies have indicated similar conclusions. For instance, the habitual suppression of emotional expression can have a negative impact on personal life satisfaction and happiness [19]. It may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease [20], lead to loneliness [21], and hinder social activities. Studies have also shown that individuals who use this strategy for an extended period are often less liked by others and are perceived as more hostile and withdrawn [22, 23]. In addition, individuals who habitually employ expression suppression strategies not only repress negative emotions but also exhibit behavioral symptoms that suppress the expression of positive emotions. For example, individuals who adopt the suppression strategy show unequal emotional experiences and less intimate behavior with their partners in intimate relationships [24]. They may choose to escape rather than hug or touch after a fight. This behavior is more likely to trigger negative emotions from their partners and damage the intimate relationship.

There is a potential correlation between expression suppression strategy and rumination traits [25]. The rumination trait refers to an individual’s tendency to repeatedly think about the causes, meaning, and negative consequences of negative events when they encounter them [26]. Expressive suppression strategy and rumination traits are both highly correlated with psychiatric disorders, and the two disease risk factors can interact in a vicious cycle that exacerbates disease symptoms. Exploring the relationship between the two can help to prevent the onset of illness and alleviate co-morbid symptoms from a risk factor co-morbidity perspective. According to the Process Model of Emotion Regulation, personality traits are the key factors influencing the selection of emotion regulation strategy [27]. For instance, the study by Mansueto et al. demonstrated that depressive rumination is the trait most closely associated with high depressive symptoms [28]. This leads individuals to prefer non-adaptive emotion-regulation strategies, such as expressive suppression.

Additionally, expressive suppression strategy may interfere with cognitive activity, leading rumination. The process model of emotion regulation emphasizes that the expressive suppression requires more cognitive resources to control the ongoing emotional response, so it will reduce the overall memory level of individuals, especially the auditory memory level and verbal memory level, and impair the reasoning performance [12, 14, 29]. Thus, repressed emotional events may still elicit negative emotions in individuals when similar situational cues arise. This can trigger repetitive thinking, such as rumination thinking, where attention is focused on past events. When this repetitive thinking becomes a habitual way of thinking for the individual, the individual develops the rumination trait.

At the brain physiological level, there is also a potential link between the use of expression suppression strategy and rumination traits [30]. Currently, there is a dearth of studies directly investigating the relationship between rumination and expressive suppression. Individuals with rumination traits will exhibit rumination with different symptom profiles. Nolen-Hoesksema divides these symptoms into depressed-symptom rumination (also called depressive rumination), reflective pondering, and brooding [31]. Symptom rumination refers to the individual’s repeated thinking about the causes and results of depressed mood. Reflective pondering is a symptom of rumination that an individual intentionally directs their attention from the external environment to their internal mental world, investing cognitive resources to reflect on past events to solve problems [32]. Brooding is another symptom of rumination that reflects a passive comparison of individual’s current situation with their unachieved standard [33]. Related studies have only explored the relationship between brooding and reflection and cognitive reappraisal [34], and the relationship between the two and expressive suppression is unclear.

As such, considering rumination trait has different subtypes (depressive rumination, brooding, reflection), it is possible that different types of rumination trait and symptom aspects of expressive suppression have a mutually influencing relationship. Traditional studies often consider the sum score of expressive suppression symptoms as a whole index of expressive suppression tendency, ignoring the heterogeneity of behavioral symptoms [16, 35]. Neglecting the symptomatic heterogeneity of expressive suppression may obscure the differential relationships between various expressive suppression symptoms and different types of rumination trait, potentially leading to unconvincing findings.

Network analysis is a promising approach to elucidate the connection between symptoms and potential risk factors. Rooted in the network theory of psychopathology, this approach has been extended to other problematic behaviors with symptom heterogeneity [36]. This method is data-driven and do not rely on prior assumptions about causality between variables [37, 38]. In the form of visual network graphs, aspects of expressive suppression emotion regulation strategy and rumination traits are conceptualized as complex systems composed of variables (nodes) and interwoven relationships (edges). Compared with the simple correlation method, the network analysis method can provide the strength and expected influence (EI) centrality index for each node, and test the importance of the node in the whole network [37]. Nodes with high strength and EI centrality may play a key activation role in the overall network or act as bridges between different symptom networks.

These indicators contribute to understanding key mechanisms between expressive suppression and rumination trait. Moreover, the application of network analysis to investigate the relationship between variables allows for a more comprehensive examination of the behavioral symptoms of expressive suppression that are most closely linked to rumination traits. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify potential links between expressive suppression symptoms and rumination traits, and to identify specific symptoms that act as ‘bridges’ to explain the concurrent presence of expressive suppression and rumination traits.

Methods

Participants

This study used convenience sampling method. A survey was conducted using the Wenjuanxing platform (https://www.wjx.cn/) with 448 participants recruited from XXX university in XXX Province, China. Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their participation, and they were required to respond to all survey items, resulting in no missing data. Fifty-three participants were excluded from the study for failing the two attention check items (e.g., participants did not choose the second option when they responded to “Please choose the second option for this question”). The recovery rate for the questionnaire was 88.17%. Thus, the sample consisted of 395 participants (33.9% female, Mean age = 21.22, SD = 2.11). All participants were enrolled in college. This study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki, and was approved by XXX University Research Ethics Committee.

Measures

The rumination response scale (RRS)

The Rumination Response Scale was compiled by Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow [39], and was revised by Chinese researchers Han and Yang [40]. The Cronbach’s α coefficient for the scale in the Chinese context was 0.90, and the α coefficients for the factors ranged from 0.68 to 0.85, with acceptable reliability [40]. This study adopted The Rumination Response Scale. The scale consisted of 22 items, and three symptoms, symptom rumination, brooding and reflective pondering, were measured respectively. The scale uses Likert’s four-point scale, with 1 representing “never” and 4 representing “always”. The average score for each symptom’s respective item is calculated to represent the symptom score. In this study, Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.935 for symptom rumination, 0.814 for brooding, 0.790 for reflective pondering and 0.950 for total questionnaire.

Emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ)

The study employed the expressive suppression subscale of the emotion regulation questionnaire, which comprises four items [41]. These items include four symptoms: (1) keeping emotions to myself: “I keep my emotions to myself.”; (2) inhibiting positive emotion responses: “When I am feeling positive emotions, I am careful not to express them.”; (3) inhibiting negative emotion responses: “When I am feeling negative emotions, I make sure not to express them.”; and (4) Controlling emotions by not expressing them: “I control my emotions by not expressing them”. The scale uses a Likert seven-point scale, with 1 indicating “completely disagree” and 7 indicating “completely agree”. The scale’s Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.808.

Statistical analysis

An Extended Bayesian Information criterion (EBIC) graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) network model was estimated [42]. This study predefined two clusters of nodes, one for rumination traits and the other for expressive suppression symptoms. Edge represents the partial correlation between nodes after controlling for the other remaining nodes in the network. Tightly connected nodes are placed between each other, while unconnected nodes are placed further away. The edge color blue means that the correlation between nodes is positive, and the edge color red means that the correlation between nodes is negative. The edge thickness represents the magnitudes of between-nodes correlation, that is, the edge weight.

The study used the R statistical software (qgraph package) to construct and visualize rumination trait and expressive suppression network [42], used the R package networktools to compute the bridge expected influence value of each node within the network [43], and used the bootnet package to evaluate the robustness of network characteristics [44].

To ensure the accuracy and robustness of the presented network, the study followed two procedures. Firstly, we bootstrapped the nonparametric Confidence Intervals (CIs) of each edge within the network with 1,000 bootstrapped samples. Narrow bootstrapped CIs indicate that the estimated network was accurate. Secondly, we calculated the correlation stability (CS)-coefficient for bridge expected influence by conducting a case-dropping bootstrap procedure with 1,000 bootstrapped samples. According to Epskamp et al., the optimal cut-off for the (CS)-coefficient is 0.5. Next, we used the bootnet package [44] to conduct bootstrapped difference tests for edge weights and bridge expected influences, in order to determine whether two edge weights or two node bridge expected influences differed significantly from one another.

Results

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation of each variable in the current network analysis.

Table 1 Mean scores and standard deviations for each variable selected in the rumination-suppression network
Full size table

Network analysis of rumination traits and expressive suppression

The network of associations between rumination traits and expressive suppression is displayed in Fig. 1. As shown in the figure, 5 out of 12 possible between-community edges in the network were observed, accounting for 41.67%. Symptom rumination was negatively correlated with “S1: keeping emotions to myself” (weights = -0.07), and positively correlated with “S3: Controlling emotions by not expressing them” (weights = 0.07); Brooding was positively correlated with “S3: Controlling emotions by not expressing them” (weights = 0.06); Reflective pondering was positively correlated with “S3: Controlling emotions by not expressing them” (weights = 0.02), and positively correlated with “S4: Inhibiting negative emotion responses” (weights = 0.02).

The accuracy and robustness of the current network are shown in Supplementary Materials. Figure M1 illustrates the bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for edge weights, which indicates that the edges of this network are accurate. Figure M2 shows the bootstrapped difference test for edge weights.

Fig. 1
figure 1

(a) Network structure of rumination trait and expressive suppression. Blue edges represent positive partial correlations, red edges represent negative partial correlations. The thickness of the edge reflects the magnitude of the correlation. Cut value = 0.1. (b) Bridge expected influence values. This centrality plot within the network indicates the BEI for each variable. S3 dot (“Controlling emotions by not expressing them”) denote the bridge nodes

Full size image

Bridge expected influence analysis

Among all nodes, S3 node (Controlling emotions by not expressing them) exhibits the highest positive bridge expected influence, registering a value of 0.16. The results are shown in Supplementary Materials. The CS-coefficient for bridge expected influence was calculated to be 0.52, which was larger than 0.50, indicating the centrality indices are robust (as shown in Figure M3 in Supplementary Material). The results from the bootstrapped difference tests for the node BEI values are described in Supplementary Material Figure M4.

Discussion

This study is the first to investigate the relationship between rumination traits and various symptoms of expressive suppression through network analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences in the relationship between different rumination symptoms and expressive suppression symptoms in the network. Specifically, the core symptom of controlling emotions by not expressing them is strongly associated with both symptom rumination and brooding symptoms, and keeping emotions to oneself was negatively correlated with symptom rumination. Additionally, the symptom with the most substantial positive BEI was core symptoms in expressive suppression. These results provide insight into the debate surrounding previous research that indicates rumination symptoms do not always result in maladaptive expressive suppression strategies, which may be associated with various rumination trait symptoms. This provides a potential target for the intervention of rumination from the perspective of expressive suppression strategy in the future.

Relations between rumination traits and expressive suppression

As shown in the network, the S3 node is a core symptom of the expressive suppression community. This node is “Controlling emotions by not expressing them”, which means that the individual actively inhibits the emotion expression behavior after feeling the emotion. Expressive suppression belongs to the response modulation, which includes directly influencing experiential, behavioral or physiological components of the emotional response. Previous research has also proven that behavior inhibition belongs the most core of expressive suppression among these symptoms [9, 41].

Symptoms of S3 nodes are different from those of S1 nodes. Controlling emotions by not expressing them is more similar to behavioral control, which means that the current emotional response has been generated, and the individual actively controls the behavior in order to reduce the intensity and duration of the emotional response [45], or to comply with social norms and maintain normal social activities [23]. Conversely, the purpose of keeping emotions to myself is actually not to let others see their negative or positive emotions. In essence, it is to suppress the generation of emotions and hinder the natural revelation of emotions [41]. The former is to control behavior, the cognitive stage of regulation occurs later, the latter is to control the production of emotional expression, the cognitive stage of regulation occurs earlier.

Notably, within the network, symptom rumination was positively correlated with S3 node (controlling emotions by not expressing them) in expressive suppression. However, symptom rumination was negatively correlated with S1 node (keeping emotions to myself) in expressive suppression. The results of network analysis showed similar results to previous studies, namely, the relationship between symptom rumination (which can also be understood as depression-related rumination symptoms) and expressive suppression was inconsistent, which could be positive or negative [46, 47].

On the basis of examining the different symptoms of the two variables at the same time, this result may indicate that the different correlation may be due to differences in expressive suppression symptoms. That is, there are differences between “controlling emotions by not expressing them” and “keeping emotions to myself”. For example, one researcher investigated the relationship between depression-related rumination symptom and core symptoms of expressive suppression [28], and found that depression-related rumination was positively correlated with core symptoms of expressive suppression (the management of emotions by suppressing emotion expression). The result is consistent with most of the previous studies and easy to understand. On the one hand, after the individual’s behavior inhibition, the emotional physiological response did not decrease, and the preprocessing of emotional information by amygdala did not change, and the individual did not invest cognitive resources to reprocess emotional information [14]. On the other hand, the social interaction after restraining the behavior will be damaged, and the environmental stimulus after the damage will in turn affect the mood, resulting in a vicious circle that causes the individual to form depressive rumination. Similarly, it was found that brooding, a subtype of rumination, were also positively correlated with core symptoms of expressive suppression [48]. But reflective pondering was negatively correlated with core symptoms of expressive suppression. This may be because reflective pondering is oriented towards problem-solving and helps to analyze the problem [47].

However, other studies have found that symptom sub-type of rumination is related to accelerated aging in the later years of individuals, and the adoption of expression inhibition strategy may have a protective effect on brain aging, indicating that in this study, depressive rumination is negatively correlated with expression inhibition strategy. This may be because expression suppression has different symptoms, and keeping emotions to myself indicates that the flow of emotions is inward rather than outward. Individuals with inward emotional expression pay attention to their own emotional world, have a richer emotional world, and have stronger emotional perception abilities such as emotion recognition and emotion understanding, which can improve their own awareness of mindfulness and empathy for others, and correspondingly have lower depressive rumination symptoms.

Bridge expected influence

The BEI within our network analysis highlights the differential impact of rumination traits on expressive suppression symptoms. S3 node (controlling emotions by not expressing them) emerged as the symptom with the highest positive BEI, suggesting it plays a pivotal role in connecting rumination traits and expressive suppression symptoms. This finding implies that the S3 node symptom may be the expressive suppression symptom most closely associated with rumination traits, and that it is also the central symptom in the expressive suppression variable. Therefore, interventions that focus on improving the behavioral inhibition aspect of expressive suppression may reduce rumination trait symptoms more than those that target other expressive suppression symptoms.

Expressive writing is an emerging psychotherapy approach that interferes with expressive suppression of emotion regulation strategies. It focuses on the behavioral symptoms of expressive suppression strategies [49]. With a low degree of intervention, the client can express their emotions and thoughts regarding a traumatic or stressful event freely. Expressive writing can improve or replace the individual’s active inhibition of emotional expression by writing, and encourage the client to express emotional feelings freely without social restrictions. Studies have shown that expressive writing can not only improve subjective emotional experience, but also effectively reduce emotional physiological reactions, such as skin electrocution, blood pressure, and muscle tension [50]. In addition, the therapy can also promote the meaning reconstruction of emotional events, and these functional effects are critical for the improvement of depression and depressive rumination symptoms [51].

Future studies should directly investigate the relationship between rumination symptoms and behavior inhibition symptoms of expressive suppression. It should be explored whether improving core symptoms of expressive suppression can promote the improvement of rumination symptoms, particularly depression rumination symptoms. A researcher investigated the impact of expressive writing on rumination and discovered that it can effectively reduce rumination in individuals [52], providing indirect evidence of the comorbidity between expressive suppression symptoms and rumination symptoms. In the future, more detailed and targeted emotional expression therapies should be developed to inhibit such behaviors.

Limitation

The study has some limitations. Firstly, it is a cross-sectional study, and therefore cannot establish a directional relationship between rumination traits and expressive suppression. It cannot determine whether rumination traits cause expressive suppression or vice versa. In other words, it cannot directly explain the potential causal relationship. Secondly, the sample size of the research is relatively small, which may affect the stability of the network structure to some extent. However, existing studies have shown that network analysis can be used to explore the relationship between variables even when there are many nodes and a small number of subjects [53, 54]. Thirdly, this study is limited to the expressive suppression strategies selected by the scale used. While this study employs classical measurement tools frequently used by researchers, it is important to note that these tools may not fully represent all symptoms of expressive suppression strategies.

Conclusion

This study contributes to understanding the relationship between rumination traits and expressive suppression strategy of non-adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Through the method of network analysis, this study for the first time revealed the specific connection between rumination traits and expressive suppression based on symptoms. It also clarified the core symptoms of expressive suppression that were prominent in the relationship between the two. These findings provide a target for future intervention of rumination traits and prevention of comorbidity between the two non-adaptive coping styles.

Data availability

The datasets and R-codes used in this study are not publicly available but are available from the first author.

References

  1. Lincoln TM, Schulze L, Renneberg B. The role of emotion regulation in the characterization, development and treatment of psychopathology. Nat Rev Psychol. 2022;1(5):272–86. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00040-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. McRae K, Gross JJ, Emotion regulation. Emotion. 2020;20:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000703.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Mohammed A, Kosonogov V, Lyusin D. Is emotion regulation impacted by executive functions? An experimental study. Scand J Psychol. 2022;63(3):182–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12804.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Villalobos D, Pacios J, Vazquez C. Cognitive control, cognitive biases and emotion regulation in depression: a new proposal for an integrative interplay model. Front Psychol. 2021;12:628416. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.628416.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Du Y, Hua L, Tian S, Dai Z, Xia Y, Zhao S, Zou H, Wang X, Sun H, Zhou H, Huang Y, Yao Z, Lu Q. Altered beta band spatial-temporal interactions during negative emotional processing in major depressive disorder: an MEG study. J Affect Disorders. 2023;338:254–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.06.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Paulus DJ, Heggeness LF, Raines AM, Zvolensky MJ. Difficulties regulating positive and negative emotions in relation to coping motives for alcohol use and alcohol problems among hazardous drinkers. Addict Behav. 2021;115:106781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106781.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Van Rheenen TE, Miskowiak K, Karantonis J, Furlong LS, Murray G, Rossell SL. Understanding familial liability for emotion regulation difficulties in bipolar disorder. Psychol Med. 2022;52(13):2614–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004626.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Weiss NH, Nelson RJ, Contractor AA, Sullivan TP. Emotion dysregulation and posttraumatic stress disorder: a test of the incremental role of difficulties regulating positive emotions. Anxiety Stress Copin. 2019;32(4):443–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2019.1618842.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gross JJ. Emotion regulation: current status and future prospects. Psychol Inq. 2015;26(1):1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Sun Y, Bo SY, Lv JJ. Brain network analysis of cognitive reappraisal and expressive inhibition strategies: evidence from EEG and ERP. Acta Psychol Sin. 2022;52(1):12–25. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2020.00012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. John OP, Gross JJ. Individual differences in emotion regulation strategies: links to lobal trait, dynamic, and social cognitive constructs. New York: Guilford Press; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yan C, Ding Q, Wang Y, Wu M, Gao T, Liu X. The effect of cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression on sadness and the recognition of sad scenes: an event-related potential study. Front Psychol. 2022;13:935007. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.935007.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Khan AJ, Maguen S, Straus LD, Nelyan TC, Gross JJ, Cohen BE. Expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal in veterans with PTSD: results from the mind your heart study. J Affect Disorders. 2021;283:278–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.02.015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Peters BJ, Overall NC, Jamieson JP. Physiological and cognitive consequences of suppressing and expressing emotion in dyadic interactions. Int J Psychophysiol. 2014;94(1):100–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.07.015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Sasaki E, Overall NC, Chang VT, Low RST. A dyadic perspective of expressive suppression: own or partner suppression weakens relationships. Emotion. 2022;22(8):1989–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000978.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Sikka P, Stenberg J, Vorobyev V, Gross JJ. The neural bases of expressive suppression: a systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies. Neurosci Biobehav R. 2022;138:104708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104708.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang J, Zhang R, Feng T. Neural basis underlying the association between expressive suppression and procrastination: the mediation role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Brain Cognition. 2022;157:105832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bc.2021.105832.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Cheng L, Yuan JJ, He YY, Li H. Emotion regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal is more effective than expressive suppression. Adv Psychol Sci. 2009;17(4):730–5. https://doi.org/CNKI:SUN:XLXD.0.2009-04-014.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Toh WX, Yang H, Emotion (Washington DC.). 2022;22(3):554–71. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000907

  20. Lopez RB, Brown RL, Wu ELL, Murdock KW, Denny BT, Heijnen C, Fagundes C. Emotion regulation and immune functioning during grief: testing the role of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal in inflammation among recently bereaved spouses. Psychosom Med. 2020;82(1):2. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000755.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Preece DA, Goldenberg A, Becerra R, Boyes M, Hasking P, Gross JJ. Loneliness and emotion regulation. Pers Indiv Differ. 2021;180:110974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Bahl N, Ouimet AJ. Smiling won’t make you feel better, but it might make people like you more: interpersonal and intrapersonal consequences of response-focused emotion regulation strategies. J Soc Pers Relat. 2022;39(7):2262–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221077233.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Wylie MS, De France K, Hollenstein T. Adolescents suppress emotional expression more with peers compared to parents and less when they feel close to others. Int J Behav Dev. 2023;47(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254221132777.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Peters BJ, Jamieson JP. The consequences of suppressing affective displays in romantic relationships: a challenge and threat perspective. Emotion. 2016;16(7):1050–66. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000202.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Misaki M, Tsuchiyagaito A, Guinjoan SM, Rohan ML, Paulus MP. Trait repetitive negative thinking in depression is associated with functional connectivity in negative thinking state rather than resting state. J Affect Disorders. 2023;340:843–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.08.052.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Watkins ER, Roberts H. Reflecting on rumination: consequences, causes, mechanisms and treatment of rumination. Behav Res Ther. 2020;127:103573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2020.103573.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Zhang N, Zhang K, Wang J, Sun X. Distract or reappraise? The mechanism of cognitive emotion regulation choice and its influential factors. Psychol Res Behav Ma. 2022;3699–708. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S389835.

  28. Mansueto G, Marino C, Palmieri S, Offredi A, Sarracino D, Sassaroli S, Ruggiero GM, Spada MM, Caselli G. Difficulties in emotion regulation: the role of repetitive negative thinking and metacognitive beliefs. J Affect Disorders. 2022;308:473–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.04.086.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Zhang M, Lu JM, Tan XZ, Wang L. Effects of emotional regulation strategies on reasoning. Psychol Sci. 2008;04805–8. https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.2008.04.009.

  30. Dryman MT, Heimberg RG. Emotion regulation in social anxiety and depression: a systematic review of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal. Clin Psychol Rev. 2018;65:17–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2018.07.004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Treynor W, Gonzalez R, Nolen-Hoeksema S. Rumination reconsidered: a psychometric analysis. Cogn Ther Res. 2003;27(3):247–59. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Kim BN, Kang HS. Differential roles of reflection and brooding on the relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: a serial mediation study. Pers Indiv Differ. 2022;184:111169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Pedersen H, Grønnæss I, Bendixen M, Hagen R, Kennair LEO. Metacognitions and brooding predict depressive symptoms in a community adolescent sample. BMC Psychiatry. 2022;22(1):157. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03779-5.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Yu SH, Tseng CY, Lin WL. A neurofeedback protocol for executive function to reduce depression and rumination: a controlled study. Clin Psychopharm Neu. 2020;18(3):375–85. https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.2020.18.3.375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Kalokerinos EK, Greenaway KH, Pedder DJ, Margetts EA. Don’t grin when you win: the social costs of positive emotion expression in performance situations. Emotion. 2014;14(1):180–6. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034442.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Liu C, Ren L, Rotaru K, Liu X, Li K, Yang W, Li Y, Wei X, Yücel M, Albertella L. Bridging the links between big five personality traits and problematic smartphone use: a network analysis. J Behav Addict. 2023;12(1):128–36. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2022.00093.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Borsboom D, Deserno MK, Rhemtulla M, Epskamp S, Fried EI, McNally RJ, Robinaugh DJ, Perugini M, Dalege J, Costantini G, Isvoranu AM, Wysocki AC, van Borkulo CD, van Bork R, Waldorp LJ. Network analysis of multivariate data in psychological science. Nat Rev Methods Primers. 2021;1(1):1–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-00055-w.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Contreras A, Nieto I, Valiente C, Espinosa R, Vazquez C. The study of psychopathology from the network analysis perspective: a systematic review. Psychother Psychosom. 2019;88(2):71–83. https://doi.org/10.1159/000497425.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Nolen-Hoeksema S, Morrow JA. Prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: the Loma Prieta earthquake. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1991;61(1):115–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.61.1.115.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Han X, Yang HF. Chinese version of nolen-hoeksema ruminative responses scale (RRS) used in 912 college students: reliability and validity. Chin J Clin Psychol. 2009;17(5):549–50. https://doi.org/10.16128/j.cnki.1005-3611.2009.05.028.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Gross JJ, John OP. Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003;85(2):348–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Epskamp S, Fried EI. A tutorial on regularized partial correlation networks. Psychol Methods. 2018;23(4):617–34. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000167.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Jones P, Networktools. Tools for identifying important nodes in networks. R Package Version. 2018;1(0):10–1155.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Epskamp S, Borsboom D, Fried EI. Estimating psychological networks and their accuracy: a tutorial paper. Behav Res Methods. 2018;50(1):195–212. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0862-1.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Gross JT, Cassidy J. Hidden feelings: Expressive suppression in middle childhood and links with physiology and negative emotion. Emotion (Washington, D.C.). 2023; 24(1): 255–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001266

  46. Naumann E, Svaldi J. Influence of suppression and reappraisal on eating-related symptoms and ruminative thinking in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Behav Res Ther. 2021;141:103851. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2021.103851.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Sutterlin S, Paap MCS, Babic S, Kubler A, Vogele C. Rumination and age: some things get better. J Aging Res. 2012;267327. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/267327.

  48. Zetsche U, Buerkner PC, Bohlaender J, Renneberg B, Roepke S, Schulze L. Daily emotion regulation in major depression and borderline personality disorder. Clin Psychol Sci. 2023;12(1):161–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026231160709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Saldanha MF, Barclay LJ. Finding meaning in unfair experiences: using expressive writing to foster resilience and positive outcomes. Appl Psychol-Hlth We. 2021;13(4):887–905. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Pennebaker JW. Expressive writing in Psychological Science. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2018;13(2):226–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617707315.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Guo L. The delayed, durable effect of expressive writing on depression, anxiety and stress: a meta-analytic review of studies with long-term follow-ups. Br J Clin Psychol. 2023;62(1):272–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12408.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Zhou JQ. A study on the regulation mechanism of depressive emotion under rumination and the effectiveness of expressive writing intervention (Unpublished master’s thesis). Shaanxi Normal University. 2016.

  53. Haws JK, Brockdorf AN, Gratz KL, Messman TL, Tull MT, DiLillo D. Examining the associations between PTSD symptoms and aspects of emotion dysregulation through network analysis. J Anxiety Disord. 2022;86:102536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102536.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  54. Schutzeichel F, Waldorp LJ, Aan Het Rot M, Glashouwer KA, Frey MI, Wiers RW, De Jong PJ. Life meaning and feelings of ineffectiveness as transdiagnostic factors in eating disorder and comorbid internalizing symptomatology – a combined undirected and causal network approach. Behav Res Ther. 2024;172:104439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2023.104439.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research was funded by the Air Force Military Medical University “Rapid Response” Project (2023KXKT060), Establishment of Basic Flight Cognition Ability Evaluation System for Air Force Recruitment (LHJJ24XL02) and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (2024SF-YBXM-063).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mingxuan Zou and Bin Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health School, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, 712046, China

    Mingxuan Zou, Yuqing He & Mengxin Yin

  2. Department of Military Medical Psychology, Air Force Medical University, Xi’an, 710032, China

    Mingxuan Zou, Bin Liu, Yuqing He, Mengxin Yin, Huaihuai Yu, Xufeng Liu, Shengjun Wu, Hui Wang & Xiuchao Wang

  3. Military Psychology Section, Logistics University of PAP, Tianjin, 300309, China

    Lei Ren

  4. Military Mental Health Services & Research Center, Tianjin, 300309, China

    Lei Ren

  5. Department of Psychology, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin, 300134, China

    Defang Mu

Authors
  1. Mingxuan Zou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bin Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lei Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Defang Mu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yuqing He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mengxin Yin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Huaihuai Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Xufeng Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Shengjun Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Hui Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Xiuchao Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: Mingxuan Zou, Bin Liu, Hui Wang, Xiuchao Wang; Data acquisition: Mingxuan Zou, Bin Liu, Yuqing He; Data analysis: Mingxuan Zou, Bin Liu, Lei Ren, Defang Mu, Mengxin Yin, Huaihuai Yu; Data interpretation: Mingxuan Zou, Bin Liu, Lei Ren, Yuqing He, Mengxin Yin, Huaihuai Yu; Drafting: Mingxuan Zou, Bin Liu, Lei Ren, Defang Mu; Revision: Xufeng Liu, Shengjun Wu, Hui Wang, Xiuchao Wang.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hui Wang or Xiuchao Wang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all participants. All procedures in this study were in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the study protocol was approved by Air Force Medical University Research Ethics Committee.

Consent for publication

Not Applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zou, M., Liu, B., Ren, L. et al. The association between aspects of expressive suppression emotion regulation strategy and rumination traits: a network analysis approach. BMC Psychol 12, 501 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01993-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01993-2

Keywords

BMC Psychology

ISSN: 2050-7283

Contact us