What to do, and what not to do, to be happy and satisfied: Affect regulation strategies and subjective well-being in representative sample of Croatia Zvjezdana Prizmic A, Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan B & Renata Franc B A Washington University, St. Louis, USA B Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia

Population: Land (km2): Islands: CROATIA

AFFECT REGULATION STRATEGIES (ARS)  effectiveness of strategies  ruminating can prolong negative feelings (Nolen-Hoeksema1998)  some regulation strategies are healthier than others: reappraisal and suppression (John & Gross 2004)  affect regulation strategies help to recover from negative affect (Tugade & Fredrickson 2004)  effective affect regulation has benefits for health, social relations, cognitive functioning & improving subjective well-being

SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING (SWB)  is multidimensional construct (Diener et al. 2003)  cognitive component - life satisfaction  affective component - high positive, low negative affect  a time-sequential framework of SWB (Kim-Prieto et al. 2005) a) life circumstances and events b) affective reactions to life events c) recall of reactions d) global judgment about life

PREDICTIONS  different relationship of ARS for time being happy and unhappy  different correlates of ARS with cognitive & affective components of SWB  different correlates of ARS used by women and men with SWB OUR STUDY  Examined a wide variety of regulation strategies  Employed a three-component model of SWB  Adds to SWB research, which is usually studied in connection with societal, cultural, personal variables SPECIFIC AIMS  to explore the relationship between 7 groups of ARS and SWB measures  to determine which strategies are the best predictors of life satisfaction, time being happy, and time being unhappy  to examine these relationships within gender

SUBJECTS  Representative sample of Croatian citizens (N=900)  Demographic variables Age Gender Income (in Euro) Median 42 Women 486 (54%) < (16%) Range y. Men 414 (46%) (58%) > (24%) PROCEDURE  in-person interviews in respondent ’ s home  respond rate 77%

MEASURES Subjective well-being measures  Cognitive component - Satisfaction with the Life Scale (Diener et al. 1985)  7-point scale: 1= ‘ totally disagree ’ 7= ‘ totally agree ’   =.85  Affective component - Fordyce Happiness Scale (Fordyce 1988)  % of time happy, % of time unhappy Affect regulation strategies  Measure of Affect Regulation Styles, MARS (Larsen & Prizmic 2004)  38 mood regulation items scored for 7 factors  7-point scale: 1= ‘ not at all ’ 7= ‘ almost always ’   from.34 to.78

SCALES 1. Active distraction (going out with friends, doing something fun, laughing) 7. Waiting (doing nothing, letting things wait, daydreaming) 6. Rumination and withdraw (trying to understand own feelings, thinking about own feelings, writing about own feelings) 5. Passive distraction and acceptance (praying, accepting it as fate, drinking coffee, eating something) 4. Venting and expressing affect (letting feelings out, expressing them, talking to someone about their feelings) 3. Behavioral engagement (making plans how to avoid such problems in future, taking action to solve the problem) 2. Cognitive engagement (thinking about positive things, things that are going well in life, putting things in perspective)

RESULTS  Frequency of affect regulation strategies by gender ** * ** = p <.01

 Affect regulation strategies predicting life satisfaction Women  △ R 2 Men  △ R 2 Step 1 Age Income Step 2 Age Income Active distraction Cognitive engagement Behavioral engagement Venting & expressing affect Passive distraction & acceptance Rumination & withdraw Waiting -.20**.23** -.12**.18**.11.20** **.11** -.15**.29** **.12* **.04* R=.45** ( F=12.98) R=.39** ( F=7.89)

Overview for cognitive component  Predictors of life satisfaction different for women and men Women: Cognitive engagement (rumination on positive) Men: Active distraction Affect regulation strategies Demographic variables problem solvingdepression  Nolen-Hoeksema & al. (2003) : women more contemplative than men They scored higher than men on: Reflection & Brooding = Rumination

 Affect regulation strategies predicting % of time happy Women  △ R 2 Men  △ R 2 Step 1 Age Income Step 2 Age Income Active distraction Cognitive engagement Behavioral engagement Venting & expressing affect Passive distraction & acceptance Rumination & withdraw Waiting -.18**.18** **.12*.26** **.11** -.13**.12** **.16** *.04*.08** R=.42** ( F=14.05) R=.34** ( F=5.86)

Overview for affective component – positive affect  Predicting percent of time happy: Women: more cognitive engagement more active distraction Men: more active distraction more cognitive engagement less waiting Finding meanings or solution for the problematic situation Works by interrupting or preventing rumination

 Affect regulation strategies predicting % of time unhappy Women  △ R 2 Men  △ R 2 Step 1 Age Income Step 2 Age Income Active distraction Cognitive engagement Behavioral engagement Venting & expressing affect Passive distraction & acceptance Rumination & withdraw Waiting.14** -.22** ** ** **.10**.16** -.17** ** **.04* R=.42** ( F=10.84) R=.31** ( F=4.72)

Overview for affective component – negative affect  Predicting percent of time unhappy:  Women: less cognitive engagement + demographic variables  Men: demographic variables only

CONCLUSIONS Future studies - add to cross-cultural research in affect regulation - affect regulation for specific emotions ► Different regulation strategies predict % of time being happy and % of time being unhappy ► Separate sets of regulation strategies predicted SWB components for women and men ► Differential correlates between regulation strategies and cognitive and affective components of SWB