Jocelyn Huerta

Presentation Title

Expressive Suppression on Intimacy and Responsiveness in Developing Relationships

Abstract

The emotion regulation strategy, expressive suppression, has been associated with negative interpersonal outcomes in prior research. However, this work has focused on either established relationships or first encounters between strangers. In the present research, the relationship between expressive suppression and development of intimacy in burgeoning relationships was examined. Study 1 focused on how expressive suppression was associated with perceptions of intimacy in developing relationships of new roommates. Participants (N = 259) completed measures on expressive suppression, intimacy, authenticity, partner responsiveness, and self-disclosure. We predicted that expressive suppression would be associated with feelings of lower intimacy and responsiveness and that these effects would be mediated partly by lower self-disclosure and authenticity. The analysis revealed that expressive suppression and relationship quality was mediated by authenticity and self-disclosure. In Study 2, both members of roommate pairs participated (N = 76) in order to examine how one roommate’s expressive suppression was associated with the other roommate’s perceptions of relationships quality. Results of this study were mixed, however more data are needed to achieve adequate power. Overall, there is some evidence that expressive suppression is associated with relationship quality in developing relationships, possibly partially explained by lower authenticity and self-disclosure.