性格特質、情緒調節與憂鬱情緒：比較不同性別和情境的調節效果

Personality Traits, Emotion Regulation, and Depressive Affect: The Moderating Effects of Gender and Contextual Factors

研究目的：情緒調節的研究顯示，個體的性格特質影響其情緒調節策略和憂鬱情緒，而憂鬱情緒也受情緒調節策略影響；這樣的關係是否對男、女兩性在不同的問題情境下都穩定存在，則仍待研究檢驗。本研究聚焦於認知再評估和壓抑兩種情緒調節，分別檢視男、女性在人際和課業兩個問題情境中，情緒調節對於性格特質和憂鬱情緒的中介角色。研究方法：本研究採橫斷式研究設計，自2012年1月至4月招募436名大學生填寫人格、情緒調節、以及憂鬱情緒等量表，並以結構方程模式分析資料。研究結果：男性比女性在課業問題有更多的壓抑，但是在人際問題的情緒調節則兩性無明顯不同；男性較高的認知再評估和低憂鬱分數有關，但是兩性在壓抑和憂鬱情緒僅有弱相關則和預期不符。神經質分數高者較少使用認知再評估，復原力分數高者較常透過改變負向想法因應情緒。對男性來說，認知再評估中介性格特質和憂鬱情緒的關聯。研究結論：性格特質和性別在情緒調節的差異，應考量情境脈絡的影響。

Purpose: In the past two decades, studies have shown that personality traits are associated with the use of emotion regulation strategies and depressive affect, and that emotion regulation is significantly related to depressive affect. Potential moderators of these relations, including gender and contextual factors, need further investigation. The present study focused on two important emotion regulation strategies; reappraisal and suppression. We examined the mediating role of emotion regulation in the association between personality traits and depressive affect among both male and female college students in two different contexts, academic and interpersonal problems. Methods: A total of 436 undergraduate students were recruited starting from January to April 2012 for the cross-sectional study. Participants completed a questionnaire package assessing personality traits, emotion regulation, and depressive affect. Structural equation modeling was used for data analyses. Results: The results indicated that males tended to use suppression more often than females to regulate their emotion in academic-related situations. We found no gender differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies in interpersonal situations. However, greater use of reappraisal was correlated with lower depressive scores for males, but not females. For both genders, suppression and depressive affect were, in contrast to our expectation, only weakly related with each other. Reappraisal mediated the effects between personality traits and depressive affect for males regardless of the situation. Conclusions: Discussion of individual differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies should encompass the situational context.