Previous research suggests that the frequency of using specific emotion regulation (ER) strategies varies across cultures. While individuals from East-Asian Western cultural contexts often report using expressive suppression more frequently than those from Western cultures, findings remain inconsistent for strategies such as rumination and cognitive reappraisal. On the other hand, the Turkish cultural context, which has elements of both individualistic and collectivist values, has received limited research attention in this area. The present study examined the link between culture and the use of several ER strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and rumination) in American and Turkish young adults, and tested the mediating role of emotion beliefs as a potential mechanism in these associations.
The sample consisted of 716 young adults from the United States and Turkey (Mage = 20.92, SD = 2.01; 74.3% female). Participants completed online questionnaires on ER strategies and emotion beliefs. Three parallel mediation models were tested for cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and rumination using the SPSS PROCESS macro, statistically controlling for gender.
Results showed that a belief in the uncontrollability of negative emotions mediated the link between culture and cognitive reappraisal, as well as the link between culture and rumination. Furthermore, believing that positive emotions are not useful mediated the association between culture and expressive suppression. However, only the total effect of culture on cognitive reappraisal was statistically significant, with participants from the Turkish sample reporting lower use of reappraisal. Findings suggest that cross-cultural differences in the use of cognitive reappraisal may be partially explained by beliefs about the controllability of negative emotions.