Employees’ Age Moderates Relationships of Emotional Suppression With Health and Well-Being

Abstract

Emotional suppression has been found to be negatively associated with individuals’ health and well-being. However, most studies on emotional suppression were conducted among younger adults in laboratory settings. Considering the increased aging of the current workforce, it is important to examine the effect of emotional suppression on older workers’ health and well-being. The present study examined age differences in relationships of emotional suppression with physical strain and job-related affective well-being. Physical strain and affective well-being were assessed one month following the assessment of emotion regulation in a group of 340 Chinese workers (Sample 1) and in another group of 280 Chinese workers (Sample 2). Results from both samples found that the habitual use of emotional suppression was negatively related to physical strain among older workers but not among younger workers. Results from Sample 1, but not Sample 2, revealed that the habitual use of emotional suppression was positively related to affective well-being among older workers but not among younger workers. Exploratory analyses found only 1 out of the 4 interaction effects between age and cognitive reappraisal such that cognitive reappraisal was positively related to affective well-being among older workers but not among younger workers. Findings contribute to the aging and emotion regulation literature by discovering an age-related increase in the effectiveness of emotional suppression in relation to employees’ physical strain and affective well-being. Habitual use of emotional suppression may become more effective for older workers, and thus it is a potential strategy for them to maintain health and well-being.