Fear of crime, depressive feelings, and life satisfaction. Cognitive emotion regulation as a strength or vulnerability factor?

The study investigated the role of adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the associations between affective fear of crime, life satisfaction, and depressive feelings in a sample of older adults (age 64–106; N=622). The results showed that those older people who experience more worry about crime tend to use such maladaptive strategies as rumination, catastrophizing, and others blame more frequently. Additionally, rumination and self-blame moderated the association between affective fear of crime and life satisfaction. Thus, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies could be considered a psychological vulnerability factor for fear of crime and its association with life satisfaction. In contrast, there were no associations between adaptive emotion regulation strategies and affective fear of crime, and adaptive emotion regulation did not serve as a strength factor in the associations between fear of crime with depressive feelings and with life satisfaction.    

The study is based on the 65+ and Safe Study data and is part of the doctoral project of Nadezhda Golovchanova. It is currently published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Golovchanova, N., Boersma, K., Andershed, H., & Hellfeldt, K. (2021). Affective Fear of Crime and Its Association with Depressive Feelings and Life Satisfaction in Advanced Age: Cognitive Emotion Regulation as a Moderator? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(9), 4727. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094727

Contact: Nadezhda Golovchanova,