THE ROLE OF EMOTION-REGULATION STRATEGIES IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND DEPRESSION TENDENCIES

Authors

  • Éva KÁLLAY Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. evakallay@gmail.com
  • Sebastian PINTEA Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. sebastianpintea@psychology.ro

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbpsyped.2018.1.01

Keywords:

depression, emotion-regulation strategies, age, gender, education, mediation.

Abstract

The drastic changes characteristic to our times force individuals to face rapidly changing life conditions, resulting in an increasing number of individuals who cannot adequately adapt. There is a plethora of research indicating differences in depression tendencies between gender differences and educational levels. However, the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that may explain such differences are under-studied. Our study investigates which cognitive emotion-regulation strategies mediate the relationship between gender/education, and depressive tendencies. Our results indicate a significant relationship between gender and depression tendencies; women having higher levels of depressive symptoms. We also found a significant relation-ship between education and depression; lower levels of depressive symptoms for participants with higher levels of education. Female participants use to a higher degree strategies as self-blame, acceptance, rumination, putting into perspective, and catastrophizing. Concerning mediational models, the relationship between gender and depression tendencies is mediated by self-blame, acceptance, rumination and catastrophizing, while the relationship between education and depression tendencies is mediated by acceptance, catastrophizing, and others blame. In conclusion, even if social factors are more intuitive and easier to identify in the form of social categories (gen-der/education groups), behind these categories stand different psychological profiles, generated by differences in using psychological mechanisms such as emotion-regulation strategies. Our study points out the need to identify such subtle mechanisms that can explain the unequal distribution of distress in the population.

Die Rolle der Emotion-Regelstrategien in der Beziehung zwischen demographischen Faktoren und Depression Tendenzen. Die drastischen Veränderungen, die für unsere Zeit charakteristisch sind, zwingen die Individuen dazu, den schnell ändernden Lebensbedingungen gegenüberstehen, was zu einer steigenden Anzahl von Individuen führt, die sich nicht adäquat anpassen können. Es gibt eine Fülle von Untersuchungen, die auf Unterschiede in den Depressivitätstendenzen zwischen Geschlechterunterschieden und Bildungsniveau hinweisen. Die kognitiven und emotionalen Mechanismen, die solche Unterschiede erklären könnten, sind jedoch zu wenig erforscht. Unsere Studie untersucht, welche kognitiven Emotionsregulationsstrategien die Beziehung zwischen Geschlecht/ Bildung und depressiven Tendenzen vermitteln. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen eine signifikante Beziehung zwischen Geschlecht und Depression Tendenzen; Frauen zeigen höhere depressiven Symptomen. Wir fanden auch eine signifikante Beziehung zwischen Bildung und Depression; niedrigere Niveaus von depressiven Symptomen für Teilnehmer mit einem höheren Bildungsniveau. Weibliche Teilnehmer Weibliche Teilnehmer nutzen in höherem Maße Strategien als Selbstschuld, Akzeptanz, Wiederkäuen, Relativieren und Katastrophieren. In Bezug auf Mediationsmodelle wird die Beziehung zwischen Geschlecht und Depressionstendenzen durch Selbstbeschuldigung, Akzeptanz, Wiederkäuen und Katastrophisierung vermittelt, während die Beziehung zwischen Bildung und Depressionstendenzen ist durch Akzeptanz, Katastrophisierung und andere Schuldzuweisungen vermittelt. Abschließend, auch wenn soziale Faktoren intuitiver und leichter in Form von sozialen Kategorien (Geschlect / Bildung Gruppen) zu identifizieren sind, stehen hinter diesen Kategorien unterschiedliche psychologische Profile, ie durch Unterschiede in der Anwendung psychologischer Mechanismen wie Emotionsregulationsstrategien entstehen. Unsere Studie weist auf die Notwendigkeit hin, solche subtilen Mechanismen zu identifizieren, die die ungleiche Verteilung von Distress in der Bevölkerung erklären können.

Schlüsselwörter: Depression, Emotionsregulationsstrategien, Alter, Geschlecht, Bildung, Vermittlung.

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Published

2018-06-30

How to Cite

KÁLLAY, Éva, & PINTEA, S. (2018). THE ROLE OF EMOTION-REGULATION STRATEGIES IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND DEPRESSION TENDENCIES. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Psychologia-Paedagogia, 63(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbpsyped.2018.1.01

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