Examining the link between social emotion regulation and relationship satisfaction at dyad and individual levels of analysis

Although emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and suppression have been widely studied as ways individuals can self-regulate their emotions, less is known about co -reappraisal and co -suppression, and their social consequences at both the dyad and individual levels. To address these knowledge gaps, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the two aforementioned social emotion regulation (SER) strategies — co-reappraisal and co-suppression — and relationship satisfaction in romantic couples, for both couples and the individuals within them. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 114 U.S. adult romantic couples reported on their habitual SER strategy use and relationship satisfaction. Using the Griffin and Gonzalez (1995) latent variable model, we decomposed the overall correlation between each SER strategy and relationship satisfaction into individual and dyad-level relations. We found that both couples and individuals who co-suppressed more were less satisfied with their relationship. However, co-reappraisal was not associated with relationship satisfaction at either the individual or dyad levels. These findings highlight SER as a distinct and meaningful phenomenon in the emotion regulation literature, as strategies enacted in an interpersonal, dyadic context may yield different social outcomes than what is expected from self-regulation strategies.