Cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms: differences between males and females

The present study focuses on comparability of men and women in (a) the extent to which they use specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies in response to the experience of life stress and (b) the extent to which the use of these strategies is related to the reporting of depressive symptoms. In a general population sample of 251 males and 379 females, data were obtained on symptoms of depression and the use of nine cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Significant differences were found in the strategies Rumination, Catastrophizing and Positive refocusing: women reported to use these strategies more often than men. However, no differences were found in the extent to which specific cognitive strategies were related to the reporting of depressive symptomatology. In both groups, higher extents of reporting self-blame, rumination and/or catastrophizing as strategies were strongly related to higher depression scores, whereas higher extents of using positive reappraisal were related to lower depression scores. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.