We examined the effects of affect and emotional suppression (ES) on short-term life satisfaction (LS). In doing so, we considered the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA).

The final sample included the data collected from 398 students (184 men and 214 women). The mean ages were 19.15 yrs for men and 19.84 yrs for women. Participants answered six questionnaires two of which were used for another study. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was utilized for assessing activated PA and NA, two subscales of the Multiple Mood Scale to measure deactivated PA and NA, respectively, one subscale of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for gauzing ES, and the Short-term Life Satisfaction Scale for LS. All of them were Japanese versions, answered on the past week.

Results showed that LS was positively associated with PA and negatively with NA, but that its positive association was stronger in activated PA than deactivated PA while its negative association was stronger in deactivated NA than activated NA. The interaction between deactivated NA and ES was significant in men, whose post-hoc tests suggested that deactivated NA was more negatively associated with LS when ES was higher.

This study suggested that activated and deactivated affect differ in their relations to life satisfaction. Moreover, it is likely that the detrimental effect of NA on life satisfaction is larger when the expression of NA is more strongly suppressed.