The effects of suppression of positive and negative emotions on loneliness in Turkish University-attending emerging adults: does gender make a difference?

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the predictive effect of suppression of positive and negative emotions on loneliness and whether gender moderated the relationship between them in the Turkish population. The sample consisted of 408 (286 females and 122 males) university-attending emerging adults aged 18–25 (M = 20.98, SD = 1.61). The participants completed the measures of suppression sub-dimension of emotion regulation and loneliness, as well as a demographic survey. The results demonstrated that suppression of positive and negative emotions positively predicted loneliness regardless of gender. The findings also indicated that although males compared to females reported significantly greater suppression of positive and negative emotions, there was no significant difference between females and males on loneliness. In conclusion, in the socio-cultural context, hiding emotions in males reduced the socially punishing aspects of suppression but could not provide social gains. Lastly, the findings were discussed in the literature context.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion regulation
• suppression
• loneliness
• gender
• university-attending emerging adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

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

Ethical compliance section

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Karababa

Ali Karababa is an associate professor at the Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance at Usak University, Turkey. Her research interests include adolescence, parenting, family relationships, loneliness, emotion regulation, and socio-emotional well-being, as well as school and cultural contexts.