2008 Volume 16 Issue 3 Pages 378-387
The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal relationship between emotional expression as an emotion-focused coping and depression of university students using a prospective research design. Participants were 341 undergraduates, who completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. They were the situational version of Emotional Coping Questionnaire (ECQ) to measure two types of expressing anger and depressive emotions (i.e., Emotional Expressions to Oneself and to Others), the situational version of General Coping Questionnaire (GCQ) for problem-focused coping, and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for depression. The three measures were administered twice, T1 and T2, five weeks apart. Hierarchical regression analyses of the data showed that T1 Emotional Expression to Oneself had a significantly positive relationship with T2 depression in women. Results also suggested that depression reduced problem-solving coping in women with high depression. The possibility of intervention to reduce emotional expression to oneself along with enhancing problem solving is discussed.
