Hidden feelings: Expressive suppression in middle childhood and links with physiology and negative emotion.

A commonly used strategy for regulating emotions, expressive suppression (ES), involves attempts to conceal emotion-expressive behavior. The present study investigated the effects of two types of ES (trait and state) in middle childhood on two domains of functioning-subjective negative emotion (measured by self-report of sadness) and stress physiology (measured by skin conductance level [SCL], an indication of physiological arousal)-in a racially diverse sample. Children ages 9-10 (