Effects of Inexpressive Aggression on Depression in College Students: Cross Cultural Study between Japan and Russia

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the cross-cultural effects of inexpressive aggression on depression in terms of emotion regulation in Japanese and Russian students. Two hundreds and six Japanese students and 243 Russian students read scenarios depicting socially provocative situations, and asked to rate their own anger, the other party's hostile intent and happy emotion, and the extent in which they would use emotion regulations (distraction, suppress, and reappraisal), and finally their own other kinds of negative emotions (melancholy, anxiety, and depression) on a 9-point rating scale. The results showed that 1) Russians more frequently used suppression as emotion regulation than Japanese did, and suppression of anger decreased depressive emotions among Russians but not among Japanese. 2) Japanese would more frequently use reappraisal than Russians and reappraisal would increase depressive emotions among Japanese but not among Russians. 3) Distraction increased depressive emotions both among Japanese and Russian participants. 4) Females used more emotion regulation and felt more depressive emotions than males in both samples.