Abstract
This daily diary study examined the within-person coupling between four emotion regulation strategies and both subjective well-being and perceived stress in daily life of geriatric nurses. Participants (N = 89) described how they regulated their emotions in terms of cognitive reappraisal and suppression. They also indicated their subjective well-being and level of perceived stress each day over 3 weeks. At the within-person level, cognitive reappraisal intended to increase positive emotions was positively associated with higher subjective well-being and negatively associated with perceived stress. Suppression of the expression of positive emotions was negatively associated with subjective well-being and positively associated with perceived stress. However, cognitive reappraisal intended to down-regulate negative emotions and suppression as a strategy to inhibit the expression of negative emotions were not associated with daily well-being or perceived stress. Off-days were rated as days with higher subjective well-being and lower perceived stress in contrast to working days. At the between-person level, individuals who reported more daily negative affect reported increased suppression of positive emotions, corroborating the within-person findings. Moreover, findings indicated that nurses with more years of experience in the job reported higher subjective well-being and less perceived stress. These results provide insights into important daily emotional processes of geriatric nurses, both at workdays and in their leisure time.
Highlights
Emotions accompany our daily lives, in contexts that provide a rich array of rewarding or stressful situations
Little is known about how professional caregivers working with older adults regulate their emotions in their daily lives and how these regulatory processes are linked with the overall daily subjective well-being and perceived stress
Reappraisal of positive emotions was negatively related to perceived stress (b = −0.09, SE = 0.04, p < 0.05)
Summary
Emotions accompany our daily lives, in contexts that provide a rich array of rewarding or stressful situations The regulation of these emotions is often a voluntary and conscious act to ensure everyday functioning and to obey social rules. Both experimental and daily diary research have provided interesting insights into regulatory strategies and processes in the daily lives of young, middle-aged, and older adults in relation to subjective well-being (Nezlek and Kuppens, 2008; Brans et al, 2013; Voelkle et al, 2013; Cutuli, 2014; Kalokerinos et al, 2015; Koval et al, 2015; Ong and Zautra, 2015; Brockman et al, 2016; Richardson, 2017; Scheibe et al, 2018). Little is known about how professional caregivers working with older adults regulate their emotions in their daily lives (both on workdays as well as in their leisure time) and how these regulatory processes are linked with the overall daily subjective well-being and perceived stress
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