Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Among Young Adults and Elderly

Emotion and emotion regulation is an integral part of all fields of Psychology. However, studies in the field of cognitive emotion regulation strategies are scarce and furthermore a focused study on group differences between these cognitive emotion regulation strategies has not been done. This study aimed to see whether there were any significant age differences between young adults (18-35 years) and elderly (above 60 years) on the use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and whether the above differences would remain significant after controlling for religious coping. One hundred and twenty participants (young adults=60 and elderly=60) responded to standardized measures of Cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2001) and religious coping activity scale (Pargament, 1990). The results showed that there was a significant age difference between young adults and the elderly on the cognitive emotion regulation strategies of Self-blame, Rumination, Positive refocusing, Putting in perspective, and Catastrophizing. Results showed that elderly scored higher in the positive subscales of Putting in perspective and Positive refocusing which shows the elderly are more capable and efficient in managing their emotions. Results also showed young adults scoring higher than elderly in the negative subscales of Self-blame, Rumination and Catastrophizing. Also, these differences remained significant even after controlling for religious coping strategies. These age differences between the cognitive emotion regulation strategies could guide us through how emotion regulation strategies are learned and made efficient as life unfolds through various new emotion eliciting experience and situations.