Cognitive emotion regulation strategies: Gender differences and associations to worry

Research generally supports differences in the prevalence of GAD and reports of excessive worry between men and women. Psychosocial theories espouse individual vulnerability factors as correlates of anxiety and in turn related to gender differences. Emotion regulation is one vulnerability factor that has shown involvement in the development, exacerbation, and/or maintenance of anxiety, although there is insufficient evidence of this direct contribution to observed gender differences in anxiety. Using a sample of 1080 young adults, the current study examines the differential use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies between males and females and the subsequent effect on worry. Results of the present study provide tentative support for differential cognitive emotion regulation strategies between gender as a vulnerability to increased worry and potentially GAD. Specifically, males and females significantly differed in the endorsement of use of rumination, putting problems into perspective and blaming others as cognitive emotion regulation strategies.