Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Daily Diary Study, 2021

This study focused on interpersonal emotion regulation across American social class distinctions. Participants were undergraduate students from the University of Arizona (IRB approval: 1912236310A001). They received course credits in exchange for their participation. Procedure Once participants were enrolled in the study, they were sent a link to an online baseline survey. After 3 to 5 weeks from the completion of the baseline survey, participants were asked to complete a survey each day before they went to bed for 14 days. Email and text reminders were sent every night to increase the compliance rate. When participants missed a survey, research staff contacted them to encourage their participation and resolve any technical issues. Participants were also given an extra day to make up for a day that they missed if they wanted to. Of the 470 participants that completed all of the baseline survey measures, 399 (n= 203 working-class students) completed at least one daily diary survey. Of those, 89% (i.e., 355 participants) completed the survey for all 14 days. In the baseline survey, we measured demographic variables, housing situation, and social support. The daily diary surveys included measures of daily interpersonal emotion regulation, daily positive affect and negative affect, and daily life satisfaction. Participant Demographics We prescreened international students because of the study’s focus on social class culture in American contexts. The targeted sample size for multilevel analyses was 400 participants. To have a buffer for attrition, 471 participants were enrolled in the study and completed the baseline survey. 1 participant did not complete the measure of social class, so 470 participants were included in the final dataset. Participants were classified as working-class students (n = 207) if neither parent or legal guardian has completed a four-year college degree and as middle-class students (n= 263) if at least one parent has attained a four-year college degree. In terms of income, 11.6 % of working-class students were below the poverty income level (i.e., yearly household income of less than $25,000 for a 4 people household) defined by the U.S. Federal Poverty Guideline, whereas only 1.3% of middle-class students were in poverty. The median yearly household income bracket was $25,001-$50,000 for working-class students vs. $125,001-$150,000 for middle-class students. Among middle-class students, 63% self-identified as Caucasian, 23% as Hispanic/Latino, 7% as Asian/Asian American, 3% as African American, and 4 as other. Twenty-five percent of working-class students self-identified as Caucasian, 52% as Hispanic/Latino, 9% as Asian/Asian American, 6% as African American, 3% as Native American, and 5% as other. In terms of gender, 75% of middle-class students and 86% of working-class students self-identified as female.