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Ethnic Variation in the Impact of Emotion and Emotion Regulation on Health: A Replication and Extension

¹ Department of Psychology
² Intercultural Institute on Human Development & Aging, Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York.

Address correspondence to Nathan Consedine, Department of Psychology, Long Island University, 191 Willoughby Street, Suite 1A, Brooklyn, NY, 11201. E-mail: nconsedi{at}liu.edu

Although emotions and patterns of emotion regulation are central to models linking personality and health, the generalizability of these models to diverse populations of older adults remains untested. In this study, 1,364 community-dwelling women (aged 50–70 years) from six ethnic groups completed self-report measures of trait anger, inhibition, defensiveness, and health. As expected, reports of trait anger and emotion inhibition predicted poorer health (and defensiveness better health), even when demographics and health behaviors were controlled. However, these characteristics related to outcome differently across ethnic groups; greater anger was related to better health in all groups other than U.S-born European Americans, and increased emotion inhibition was associated with better health among immigrant Eastern European women. Results are discussed within a contextualistic model of emotions and health, and directions for future research are given.