The uncharted waters of emotion: Ethnicity, trait emotion and emotion expression in older adults

Emotions are central to contemporary theories of health, and a growingbody of psychological research has shown emotion and emotion regulatorystyles to be predictive of health outcomes. Yet despite these clear links andthe fact that patterns of emotion and expression are partially a product ofculture, there is a meager literature on the emotional characteristics ofdifferent ethnic groups. Even where ethnicity has been investigated inemotions research, it has typically been operationalized in such a way thatwithin-group differences are obscured with most individuals assigned tobroad ethnic categories, such as non-Hispanic White, or Black. In thepresent study we draw on data from a multi-ethnic sample of 755community-dwelling older adults to parse a picture of the emotionalcharacteristics of three of the largest and most culturally distinct ethnicgroups in the Northeastern United States: African Americans, West Indians (Jamaicans), andEastern Slavs (Russians and Ukrainians) from the former Soviet Republic,as well as a comparison group of US-born European Americans. Aspredicted, there were striking differences in nine of 10 trait emotions aswell as in levels of emotion expressed during conflict. The findings arediscussed in terms of emotion socialization and implications for predictionand intervention in psychosocial models of emotions, emotion regulation,and health in older ethnic populations.