Emotion Expressivity and Regulation in Romantic Relationships: The Role of Social Anxiety

The present studies had two primary aims: (1) to examine how relationship-specific emotion expressivity and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) influence relationship health and (2) to examine whether symptoms of social anxiety influence the association of relationship-specific emotion expressivity and IER on relationship health. Study 1 examined these aims using cross-sectional, self-report data from adults recruited from a local university. Study 2 sought to replicate the findings of Study 1 in an adult sample recruited through Mechanical Turk. Results suggest that relationship emotion expressivity has a positive association with relationship health via IER, regardless of social anxiety symptomatology. These studies extend previous findings on emotion regulation and relationship health among those with social anxiety and suggest the important role IER plays in relationship health, regardless of social anxiety symptomatology.