Negative Affect and Health: The Importance of Being Earnest

Ethnic variation in the impact of negative affect and emotion inhibition on the health of older adults

The relations between patterns of emotional experience, emotion inhibition, and physical health have been little studied in older adults or ethnically diverse samples. Testing hypotheses derived from work on younger adults, the authors examined the relations between negative affect and emotion inhibition and that of illness (hypertension, respiratory disease, arthritis, and sleep disorder) in a sample (N = 1,118) of community-dwelling older adults from four ethnic groups: U.S.-born African Americans, African Caribbeans, U.S.-born European Americans, and Eastern European immigrants. Participants completed measures of stress, lifestyle risk factors, health, social support, trait negative emotion, and emotion inhibition. As expected, the interaction of ethnicity with emotion inhibition, and, to a lesser extent, negative affect, was significantly related to illness, even when other known risk factors were controlled for. However, the relations among these variables were complex, and the patterns did not hold for all types of illness or operate in the same direction across ethnic groups. Implications for emotion-health relationships in ethnically diverse samples are discussed.

Moderators of the Emotion Inhibition-Health Relationship: A Review and Research Agenda

The preponderance of a growing literature suggests that emotion inhibition is associated with poorer health. However, although inhibition and health are clearly related, the “inhibition hyhpothesis” has taken on the flavor of a contemporary dogma. Conceptual bases are accepted uncritically, and developments from other domains of psychology are incorporated in a selective, self-supporting, and unenlightening manner. Theories have been tested in homogenous samples, with little attention paid to possible contributions from ethnic diversity, developmental differences, or period effects. This article presents an evolutionary framework within which to consider these phenomena. It critiques the conceptual underpinnings of inhibition-health theories and provides a rationale for the expectation of moderator effects across cultures, individuals, and emotions. Directions for future empirical work are provided.