Volume 63, Issue 6 p. 698-704
Personality and Social Psychology

Expressive flexibility and health-related quality of life: The predictive role of enhancement and suppression abilities and relationships with trait emotional intelligence

Maria C. Quattropani

Maria C. Quattropani

Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

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Vittorio Lenzo

Corresponding Author

Vittorio Lenzo

Department of Social and Educational Sciences of the Mediterranean Area, University for Foreigners “Dante Alighieri”, Reggio Calabria, Italy

Vittorio Lenzo, Department of Social and Educational Sciences of the Mediterranean Area, University for Foreigners “Dante Alighieri”, Via del Torrione, 95, 89125 Reggio Calabria, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Alberto Sardella

Alberto Sardella

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

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George A. Bonanno

George A. Bonanno

Department of Clinical and Counseling Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

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First published: 16 June 2022
Citations: 3

Section Editor: Leif Kennair

Abstract

This study aims to examine the ability to flexibly enhance and suppress emotional expression, known as expressive flexibility, in relation to physical and psychological health, as well as trait emotional intelligence (EI). A sample of 503 Italian (Mage = 28.65 ± 9.26 years, 85.1% females) participants completed the Italian version of Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression (FREE) Scale, the TEIQue-SF, and the Short Form-12 Health Survey. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the Italian version of FREE showed adequate psychometric properties. In both genders, results of correlational analyses indicated that enhancement ability was associated with well-being, emotionality, and sociability, whereas suppression ability was associated with self-control. Regression analyses, controlling for age and gender, indicated that suppression and inversely enhancement abilities, predicted the perceived psychological but not physical health. Well-being, self-control, and sociability also contributed to explaining variance in the model. The interaction effect of enhancement and suppression was not significantly associated with either physical or psychological health. Overall, these results suggest that enhancement and suppression abilities differentially contribute to psychological health when trait EI is accounted for. Clinical implications and future directions for research on expressive flexibility are discussed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, VL, upon reasonable request.

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