Emotion Regulation Training: Engaging in Cognitive Reappraisal May Reduce Likelihood of Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration

Abstract

The authors examined whether intimate partner violence (IPV) history and training in specific emotion regulation (ER) strategies (i.e., expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal) impacted the amount of aggressive verbalizations college students made during an anger-arousing task. Students provided with brief cognitive reappraisal training engaged in significantly fewer aggressive verbalizations than students who received expressive suppression or no training. These results suggest that skills training in specific ER strategies may help prevent or decrease incidents of IPV.