Ionut-Stelian FLOREAN1, Costina-Ruxandra PĂSĂRELU2
costinapasarelu@psychology.ro
1 Evidence-Based Psychological Assessment and Interventions Doctoral School, Babes-Bolyai University, 37 Republicii Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
2 Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, 37 Republicii Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; International Institute for The Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
The role of intrapersonal emotion regulation in couple satisfaction is well known, while the interpersonal emotion regulation’s role has only scarcely been tackled. The few existing studies supported the role of interpersonal emotion regulation in couple, but no study has specifically assessed its effect on couple satisfaction. Likewise, it was found that cognitive empathy acts as a buffer between intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties and hostility and positively correlates with couple satisfaction. However, no study investigated cognitive empathy as a mediator between intrapersonal emotion regulation and couple satisfaction. Moreover, no study assessed the mediator role of interpersonal emotion regulation between intrapersonal emotion regulation and couple satisfaction.
Based on what was known, we took a step further, and, in line with our hypotheses, it was found that (1) interpersonal emotion regulation partially mediates the effect of intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties on couple satisfaction. (2) Cognitive empathy partially mediates the effect of intrapersonal emotion regulation on couple satisfaction. Moreover, (3) interpersonal emotion regulation and cognitive empathy sequentially mediate the effect of intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties on couple satisfaction. Furthermore, the implications and limits of the present study are discussed and some directions for future studies are suggested.
Please cite this article as: Florean, I. S., & Păsărelu, C. R. (2019). Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Empathy as Mediators between Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Couple Satisfaction. Journal of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies, 19(2), 119-134.
Keywords: couple satisfaction, intrapersonal emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation, cognitive empathy
DOI: 10.24193/jebp.2019.2.17
Published online: 2019/09/01
Published print: 2019/09/01
