Emotion regulation and mental health across cultures: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Mark Shuquan Chen (), Qiyue Cai, Deemah Omari, Drishti Enna Sanghvi, Shibo Lyu and George A. Bonanno
Additional contact information
Mark Shuquan Chen: Yale University
Qiyue Cai: Arizona State University
Deemah Omari: The American College of Greece
Drishti Enna Sanghvi: New York Presbyterian Hospital-Westchester Behavioral Health Center
Shibo Lyu: Weill Cornell Medicine
George A. Bonanno: Columbia University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, vol. 9, issue 6, 1176-1200

Abstract: Abstract Emotion regulation (ER) plays a central role in mental health, but the effect differs across cultures. Here, expanding from extant literature’s focus on Western–Eastern dichotomy or individualism–collectivism, this meta-analysis synthesized evidence on the associations between the two most-studied ER strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and two mental health outcomes (psychopathology and positive functioning) and investigated the moderating roles of several cultural dimensions: Hofstede’s national cultures dimensions, education, industrialization, richness and democracy (EIRDness), and sample demographics. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using electronic databases (CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO and MEDLINE) to identify eligible studies reporting relationships between ER and mental health outcomes (PROSPERO: CRD42021258190, 249 articles, n = 150,474, 861 effect sizes, 37 countries/regions). For Hofstede’s national cultures and EIRDness, multimodel inference revealed that greater reappraisal propensity was more adaptive in more short-term-oriented, uncertainty-tolerant and competition-driven cultures, whereas greater suppression propensity was more maladaptive in more indulgent and competition-driven cultures. For demographics, greater reappraisal propensity was more adaptive for samples with more female (B = −0.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.29 to −0.09) and more racial minority participants (B = −0.32, 95% CI −0.51 to −0.13), whereas greater suppression propensity was more maladaptive in younger samples (B = −0.004, 95% CI −0.005 to −0.002). These findings elucidate how cultures are associated with the function of ER and suggests ways in which future studies can integrate cultural characteristics when examining ER and psychological adjustment.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02168-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nathum:v:9:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1038_s41562-025-02168-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02168-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Human Behaviour is currently edited by Stavroula Kousta

More articles in Nature Human Behaviour from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().