Effects of Target Audience on Emotion Regulation Strategies and Goals

The present work examines whether emotion regulation (ER) strategies and goals vary as a function of the interaction partner (i.e., the target audience). Participants (N = 237; M age = 21 years) indicated the extent to which the target (mother, father, friend, acquaintance, boss) would influence (a) the likelihood of their using, and their feelings about using, five ER strategies (suppression, reappraisal, distraction, substitution, expression) and (b) their endorsement of self- and other-oriented ER goals. An interaction between target and ER strategy suggested that participants felt better about expression and reappraisal with all targets, but would be more likely to express negative emotion with emotionally close targets and control emotion with nonclose targets. Self-oriented ER goals were more likely to be endorsed with authority figures.