Emotion regulation and marital satisfaction: the mediating effect of emotion contagion. A dyadic analysis

Emotion regulation is a critical ingredient for successful interpersonal relationships. How each partner regulates positive and negative emotions has consequences for own and partners' relationship outcomes. The present study examined how emotion contagion, the tendency to feel and share emotions with one's partner, is associated with emotion regulation and marital satisfaction in a sample of 132 younger (<44) and older (>44) couples. Results from actor-partner interdependence models found partners' chronic reappraisal was associated with theirs and their partners' higher marital satisfaction especially in older age couples. Partners' higher emotion suppression was associated with own lower marital satisfaction across age groups. Partners' emotion contagion (especially of emotions of sadness, happiness, and love) mediated the observed actor and partner regulation effects. The results point to the sharing of emotion and age as moderators of emotion regulation in couples.