The central importance of expressive suppression to post-traumatic stress symptoms: A network analysis

Emotion regulation plays a role in the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Most of the research in this area has focused on how people regulate their own emotions, a process called self-emotion regulation, or self ER. Self ER strategies are well-established predictors of PTSS. However, people also regulate their emotions with the help of others, a process called social emotion regulation, or social ER. Relative to self ER, social ER is understudied, and its associations with PTSS and self ER are unclear. Therefore, we examined the relationships between self ER, social ER, and PTSS using a network analysis. Adults with a history of direct trauma exposure (N = 1,061) reported on their use of four social ER strategies (soothing, social modeling, perspective taking, and enhancing positive affect), two self ER strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), and PTSS. We identified ER nodes that had the greatest bridge expected influence (EI) centrality with PTSS. Expressive suppression (a self ER strategy) had the strongest bridge EI centrality in the network, followed by soothing and social modeling (two social ER strategies). Expressive suppression was also differentially associated with social ER strategies. Although longitudinal research is needed to establish the direction of effects, these findings underscore the importance of evaluating the roles of both self and social ER in the development and maintenance of PTSS.