Gender, emotion regulation, and cognitive flexibility as predictors of depression, anxiety, and affect in healthy adults

García-Fernández, Marta; Fuentes-Sánchez, Nieves; Escrig, Miguel A.; Eerola, Tuomas; Pastor, M. Carmen

Abstract

Anxiety and depressive disorders are among the most prevalent mental health conditions. Consequently, identifying the factors that contribute to their development and maintenance has been a longstanding focus of interest within the scientific community. Gender differences, cognitive flexibility, and emotion regulation strategies have all been considered influential in the development of these disorders, but few works have analyzed these variables simultaneously. Our study aimed to investigate the influence of gender, cognitive flexibility and emotion regulation strategies on anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as on positive and negative affect. Results showed that both men and women exhibited similar levels of depression and affect. However, men tended to suppress their emotions more and were more likely to place blame on themselves and others, whereas women showed a greater tendency to ruminate and reported higher perceptions of alternatives. Additionally, women exhibited higher levels of anxiety. When multiple regression analyses were performed, only emotion regulation strategies and cognitive flexibility emerged as predictors of depression, anxiety and affect. These findings suggest that gender differences in these variables may stem not only from the selection of emotion regulation strategies but also from how men and women perceive situations through cognitive flexibility. This raises the question of whether gender differences in emotional processing are primarily related to the selection of emotion regulation strategies.

Citation

García-Fernández, M., Fuentes-Sánchez, N., Escrig, M. A., Eerola, T., & Pastor, M. C. (online). Gender, emotion regulation, and cognitive flexibility as predictors of depression, anxiety, and affect in healthy adults. Current Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07240-6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 24, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Feb 27, 2025
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 12, 2025
• Journal: Current Psychology
• Print ISSN: 1046-1310
• Electronic ISSN: 1936-4733
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07240-6
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3704327