Abstract
Emotion regulation plays an important role in the maintenance of physical and mental health. However, the frequency of its use has not been examined in Japan. There- fore, the present study focused on the emotion regulation strategies of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression and examined:(1)the difference in the frequency of emotion regulation strategies between Japanese people with autism spectrum dis- order(ASD)and typical development(TD); (2)the relationship between emotion regulation and mental health; and(3)the relationship between emotion regulation and cognitive function. The participants were 34 people with ASD(mean age 28.8 years)and 36 people with TD(mean age 28.0 years). The results showed that people with ASD used cognitive reappraisal less frequently than people with TD. Furthermore, there was no difference in expressive suppression between the two groups. There was no association between emotion regulation and mental health in individuals with ASD. In addition, there was also no association between emotion regulation and cognitive functioning in either group. These results suggest that people with ASD have problems in executive function or identifying and communicating their own emotions. Therefore, they use adaptive emotional regulation strategies, not associated with mental health, less frequently.
