Expressive flexibility: Enhancement and suppression abilities differentially predict life satisfaction and psychopathology symptoms

The aim of the present study is to examine whether expressive flexibility (i.e., enhancement and suppression abilities) are associated with reduced psychopathology and increased life satisfaction. A total of 310 Chinese college participants completed the Chinese version of Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression (FREE) Scale together with a battery of scales assessing emotion regulation frequency, resilience, depression, anxiety and life satisfaction. Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of FREE were adequate. When controlling for demographics and emotion regulation frequency, higher suppression ability was associated with fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, while higher enhancement ability was predictive of higher life satisfaction. Moreover, consistent with the flexibility construct, enhancement ability predicted an increase in life satisfaction only when suppression ability was also high. Together, these results suggest that expressive flexibility incrementally accounts for mental health over emotion regulation frequency, and that the enhancement and suppression abilities are responsible for different dimensions of mental health. Clinical implications and future work on expressive flexibility are discussed.