Emotion Regulation - Maternal Emotional Intelligence as Moderator between Child Gender and Child Expressive Suppression?

Abstract

There is little research on the link between gender and expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy in children. Previous research in adults found males suppressing their emotions more than females. The current study tried to replicate these results. Furthermore, research is scarce on whether emotional intelligence of children’s parents could moderate this relationship. It was hypothesized that boys will suppress their emotions more than girls and that parental emotional intelligence will be of special importance in boys to reduce the strength of the relationship. Data from the Nijmegen Longitudinal Study (NLS; van Bakel & Riksen-Walraven, 2002a, 2002b) was used: 97 families (mother-child dyads) were recruited from Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Mothers filled in the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i; Bar-On, 2007), and children the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003). No relationship between child gender and child expressive suppression was found, which is not in line with previous research. Maternal emotional intelligence did not moderate the relationship between child gender and child expressive suppression. Limitations and further implications for research are discussed. The present study poses a unique contribution to the research on emotional intelligence as a moderator between gender and expressive suppression. Keywords: mother-child dyads, gender, expressive suppression, emotional intelligence, questionnaire data, mental health