Emotion Regulation Strategies on Family Functioning among Young Married Couples

This research aims to find the effect of emotion regulation with strategies like cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression toward family functioning in young married couples in Indonesia. The general functioning of the family assessment device and emotion regulation questionnaire were completed by married young adults aged between 18-25 years old. Multiple regression was used for data analysis. Results showed that emotion regulation significantly influences family functioning in married emerging adulthood. Furthermore, the partial measurement of cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation towards family functioning in a marital relationship in emerging adulthood showed a significant negative influence. Meanwhile, expressive suppression of emotion regulation predicts higher family functioning in married emerging adults. This study also showed that most respondents have healthy family functioning and use cognitive reappraisal in emotional regulation strategies for both genders. Furthermore, demographic data also showed the highest percentage using of expressive suppression among men than women. This research illustrates that individuals could achieve healthy family functioning during the age period of emerging adulthood. In addition, in the context of marital relationships among individuals in the emerging adulthood age period, there are also more adaptive emotion regulation strategies, the use of cognitive reappraisal emotional regulation strategies are better used by married emerging adults for better healthy family functioning in the family.


Introduction
Marriage leads to the first step of a couple's life to build a family. Marriage is a commitment within the human phase of life that unites man and woman as husband and wife (Murdiana, 2018). However, married life gives rise to new These roles assign additional responsibilities to individuals and influence the dynamics within the household. Marriage has stages that each couple goes through, each stage has its challenges, and the adaptation period can be different for each couple (Larson, 2003). However, each family is expected to overcome every challenge and adapt to direct the development of a family that works well.
Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (Badan Pusat Statistika) in 2019, the age of marriage in Indonesia is mainly in the age range of 19-24 years. Arnett (2015) states that this age range can fall into the emerging age range, the period is a transition between adolescence and adulthood or lasts from about 18 years to 25 years. The transition means that individuals are more independent than adolescents but have not yet fully reached adulthood. In addition, at this age, individuals go through life changes to experience instability and hope to try new experiences (Arnett, 2015). The data shows that marriages in adulthood tend to be high in Indonesia, but their challenges are also getting more significant. The situation is portrayed considering that they are trying to develop relationships between individuals at that age, one of which is relationship commitment, but the stage of self-exploration is still happening. Marriage itself is not expected to be based on desire but requires careful preparation to face the world of marriage together. So, this certainly impacts emerging adulthood, which is still unstable (Arnett, 2015); marriage requires more effort so that the built household can become a strong household and not actually pose challenges and even lead to divorce.
The biggest thing that everyone in marital status needs to avoid is divorce, but there is a perception that the younger the partner will cause the risk of divorce to be higher because of the immaturity of the couple's thinking. The research that analyzes the divorce factors conducted by Wijayanti (2021) shows that young age can be one of the factors for divorce. Divorce is most likely to happen at a young age in the age range between 21 to 30 years. On the other hand, research on the analysis of age at marriage with marital success by Glenn et al. (2010) did not affect marital success. Another study on the experience of marriage by Shofwatillah & Indriana (2018) shows that mental age does not always match their chronological age. Therefore, it also means that age is not the sole factor that causes divorce, but young age can be at risk for divorce due to pressure in carrying out developmental tasks and challenges in carrying out responsibilities and duties in building a household. For couples in adulthood, marriage is a stage of exploration and the emergence of instability, so that if there is no cooperation and a desire to understand, the conflict can lead to separation (Arnett, 2015).
Cohesiveness in marriage needs to be achieved and maintained if only family members can work together in perfect harmony (Lam et al., 2012;Sari & Puspitawati, 2017). According to Herawati & Endah (2016), family functioning can provide welfare for the family. However, a family with a healthy or good function does not mean that there has never been a conflict in it (Walsh, 2012). The following shows that family members need to adapt to changing household situations; families need to respond to their needs and carry out tasks in the family system (Keitner et al., 2010). Healthy family functioning can also be built through the integration of the roles of each family member to maintain a healthy and effective family system. Affective responses with the appropriate number and quality among family members interest among family members in certain activities of each member, therefore, families that can create a sense of security and independence, and family patterns in overcoming behavior in maintenance and adaptation among them. So, in general, according to Eptstein-Lubow, et al. (2009), family functioning refers to how family members communicate and collaborate within the family. Ryan et al. (2005) also state that family functioning is the maintenance carried out by each family member regarding the division of tasks so that each individual contributes to making the family grow socially, psychologically, and http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/tazkiya This is an open-access article under CC-BY-SA license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) biologically. Family functioning in emerging adulthood when arried can show that couples' efforts at that age can contribute to nurturing the family and growing socially, psychologically, and biologically.
One of the abilities that individuals can build in emerging adulthood in their marriage relationship is regulating emotions. Gross (2002) argues that emotions can elicit a coordinated series of behaviors, experiences, and physiological responses to influence individuals' responses to perceived conditions. For example, emotions can signal individuals to respond to environmental demands; interpersonal is related to social anticipation and building social interactions (Gross, 2014;Greenberg, 2015). However, emotions have a type and intensity depending on the situation; if they are not successfully harmonized, they will impact the individual (English et al., 2013;Gross, 2014). Therefore, efforts are needed to regulate emotions to comply with the goals (English et al., 2013).
Emotional regulation is made through various ways or strategies; Gross (2001) suggests two strategies for regulating emotions. The first is the cognitive reappraisal strategy, which leads to cognitive and antecedent-focused changes. Individuals carry out this strategy by evaluating or reinterpreting situations that have the potential to cause emotions. Individuals who use these strategies cognitively re-evaluate potentially emotional situations to reduce their emotional impact or neutralize them. The second strategy is expressive suppression which is done by suppressing the expression of behavior and response changes suppressed in the response-focused strategy. Individuals who use this strategy will try to block the ongoing emotional and expressive behavior.
Emotional regulation is one of the crucial factors in social relationships (Lopes et al., 2005;Reeck et al., 2016), and interpersonal relationships can be good (Bloch et al., 2014). Individuals who seek optimal relationship functioning through emotion regulation can foster more comfortable interactions in romantic relationships (English et al., 2013). In marital relationships, emotion regulation is also essential because it can play a role in a healthy adaptation process (Gross, 2014) and has a role in the quality of marital relationships (Mazzuca et al., 2019). Bloch et al. (2014) revealed that emotional regulation allows couples to overcome conflicts in marital relationships by helping to release from negative situations when partners face emotionally negative situations such as disappointment and anger because of disagreement.
The categorization of the factors causing divorce explained before showed that domestic disputes are the dominant cause of many divorce cases in Indonesia. Therefore, household cohesiveness is one of the important things for married couples to pay attention to maintain their household. One of the abilities that can be developed for emerging adulthood in marriage is the ability to regulate emotions because that age is a relevant period regarding emotion regulation. At the age of emerging adulthood, there are rapid developmental changes, including increased emotional experiences. A person's emotions can give rise to a coordinated set of behaviors, experiences, and physiological responses that influence how a person responds to perceived challenges and opportunities, so emotional regulation skills are important for emerging adulthood, including those in a married relationship.
Emotions need to be regulated because they have both beneficial and detrimental functions, both intrapersonal and interpersonally. Negative emotions could light up the dispute within the family. Emotional regulation can help oneself to act intelligently by aligning thoughts and actions, is also important in marital relationships because it plays a role in a healthy adaptation process, plays a role in the quality of marital relationships, and allows couples to resolve conflicts so that emotional regulation abilities can promote healthy family functioning. Therefore, seeing the importance of emotion regulation in family functioning led this research to be conducted. Emotion regulation is illustrated in the strategies emerging adulthood couples use in their marriages. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is an effect of emotional regulation on family functioning in young married couples in emerging adulthood age. Furthermore, this research will determine the strategies of emotion regulation, cognitive appraisal, or expressive suppression that affect the family functioning in emerging adulthood who are married. Therefore, the result will contribute to literacy and education for institutions, groups, and individuals to maintain family integrity.

Participants
Participants were 159 (10.1% females and 89.9% males) in emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2015) with married status aged 18-25 years recruited across the country. The online survey was initiated due to social interaction restriction regulation applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents of this study were the age of marriage the most in the 1st year consisting of 103 people (64.8%), and the least being at the age of marriage in the 6th year consisting of 1 person (0.6%). Then there are 82 people (51.6%) who have not or do not have children, and eight people have at least two children consisting of 8 people (5%). Most of the respondents in this study lived with their nuclear family, namely with their partner or with their partner and children, consisting of 98 people (61.,6%), and the least in the other options consisting of 2 people (1.3%) undergoing long-distance marriages so that they do not live together, one person (0.6%) lives only with their parents, and one person (0.6%) lives only with their in-laws.

Measures
The online survey consists of an information sheet, consent form, demographic questions, and translated versions of The General Functioning of The Family Assessment Device (GF-FAD) from Epstein et.al.. (1983) dan Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) from Gross dan John (2003) were presented to the respondents. Both scales were developed and administered in the online form by the research towards married couples from across the country.
General Functioning of The Family Assessment Device (GF-FAD) scale is a measuring tool with a 4point Likert scale that measures overall family functioning and consists of 12 items. 6 items (items 1,3,5,7,9,11) could be reversed (see Appendix A). The author made an adaptation based on the original instrument from Epstein et al. (1983). The results of the reliability coefficient analysis show Cronbach's alpha value of 0.890, which can be interpreted based on Guilford's rule that the adaptation of the General Functioning of The Family Assessment Device (GF-FAD) measurement tool in emerging adulthood in Indonesia is reliable. This study categorizes family functioning variables into two categories, namely problematic and healthy family functioning. This category follows the original instrument category reference, which the author adapted and wrote in the book Evaluating and Treating Families: The McMaster Approach by Ryan, Epstein, Keitner, Miller, and Bishop (2005). Based on this, the average score of 2 on the family functioning variable in this study indicates problematic family functioning. Problematic family functioning means that the family copes with the tasks that exist in the family ineffectively. In contrast, healthy family functioning means that the family can cope with the tasks in the family productively or effectively so that there is a growth environment for each family member socially, psychologically, and biologically. (Ryan et al., 2005). Conversely, a lower score indicates family functioning leads to healthy family functioning.
The emotion regulation instrument used in this study is the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) developed by Gross and John (2003) from Stanford University and the University of California. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) scale is a measuring tool with a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), consisting of 10 items without any reverse items. The ERQ is divided into two strategies, first is cognitive reappraisal, represented by items 3,5,7,8,10 (see Appendix B). Secondly, expressive suppression is presented in items 2,4,6,9. ERQ measures a person's tendency to regulate emotions through two strategies of emotion regulation: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.
The author adapted the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) scale based on the original instrument from Gross and John (2003). Estimated items' reliability, validity, and discriminatory power from the adaptation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) measurement tool in emerging adulthood in Indonesia using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Validity analysis of both scales was carried out through a feasibility test by a competent panel or expert judgment. The process of expert assessment or consultation with experts can also be carried out for construct validity (Sugiyono, 2013;Yusuf, 2020).

Data Collection
Data was collected through an online survey. All participants were informed about the confidential nature of the study and asked for their consent to participate in this study. The battery consisted of information about the study and a short debrief section. In addition, participants were invited through advertisements on several social media platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Instagram, Line) by providing the link to the online survey.

Study design
This study uses a quantitative method to present facts and show the relationship between variables to develop a concept. Data analysis was carried out by multiple regression analysis; this analysis was carried out if the researcher intended to predict the condition (up and down) of the dependent variable (criteria) or if two or more independent variables as predictors rs manipulated (increase in value) (Sugiyono, 2013). This study consisted of an independent variable, called emotion regulation, with two predictors through emotion regulation strategies, called cognitive reappraisal (X1) and expressive suppression (X2). And the family functioning variaise (Y) as the dependent variable. This study will examine the condition of family functioning by managing emotion regulation in married couples at the age of emerging adulthood which is divided into two emotion regulation strategies.

Description of Study Respondents'
There were no missing data from the measurements. This study was conducted on 159 respondents in the age range of 18-25 years, and married status spread across various regions in Indonesia to determine whether there is any influence between emotional regulation and family functioning in married emerging adulthood. Table 1., is a description of the respondents based on demographic data:

Cross Tabulation of Demographics Data
Descriptive data on family functioning, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression was collected from 159 respondents in this study were describes in Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4 below:

Data Normality
The normality assumption test used to find out whether the obtained data were normally or not normally distributed. Figure 1. shows that the value variable is normally distributed by showing that the dots or data are close and follow the diagonal line. It means that the value of residue was distributed normally; therefore, the regression model met the normality test and was then used to conduct this study.

Multicollinearity Test
The next assumption test was the absence of multicollinearity between independent variables. It means that a good regression model did not need to correlate with independent variables. It was necessary to determine multicollinearity using the VIF 10 value at the tolerance value above .1. Table 2 shows that the values of tolerance for emotional regulation with two strategies were the cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression was 1.0 with a value of VIF 1.0. Thus, it can be concluded that the independent variable has a multicollinearity classic assumption with a tolerance value > .1 and VIF < 10.

Heteroscedasticity Test
The heteroscedasticity test was to determine the regression model occurring with the inequalities of variance used to detect the presence or absence of heteroscedasticity in a model. Figure 2. shows that the points spread randomly without forming certain patterns that means the results of the heteroscedasticity test and scatterplot of the regression model could be used properly

Hypothesis Test
From Table 6. it is known that the significance value obtained is .000. It can also be seen that the pvalue is .000 < .005; it can be concluded that the emotional regulation variable has a significant effect on the family functioning variable. The emotion regulation variable is divided into two strategies: cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation and expressive suppression emotion regulation.
Based on R Square's amount is .179 or 17.9%. The result showed that percentage of the contribution of a regulatory variable affects the functioning of the family by 17.9%. While the remaining 82.1% were influenced by other factors not examined in this study. The multiple regression analysis tests showed that the predictor or variable factor, namely cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation and expressive suppression emotion regulation, had a significance value of .000. Therefore, in this study, the significance value of .000 < .05 means that both predictors significantly predict family functioning as an outcome variable Based on Table 7. it can be interpreted that the regression coefficient for the score of the cognitive reappraisal emotional regulation variable (X1) is negative. Every unit increase in the cognitive reappraisal emotional regulation score (X1) will decrease by 0.207 in the family functioning variable (Y). Based on table 1.3, the cognitive reappraisal emotional regulation variable (X1) influences the family functioning variable (Y) by 4.5%.
Likewise, the regression coefficient for the score of the expressive suppression emotion regulation variable (X2) is positive, then every increase of one unit of expressive suppression emotion regulation score (X2) will experience an increase of .339 (Y). Therefore, based on table 1.3, expressive suppression (X2) regulation affects the family functioning variable (Y) by 13.4%.

Discussion
Based on the research data analysis results, the results of this study are in line with English et al. (2013), which suggests that emotional regulation is carried out to seek optimal functioning of relationships to foster more comfortable interactions in romantic relationships. In addition, Mazzuca et al. (2019) say that emotion regulation has a role in the quality of marital relationships. Bloch et al. (2014) also said that emotion regulation allows couples to overcome conflicts in marital relationships. Emotional regulation is also essential because it can play a role in the adaptation process. Based on the determination test table, the amount of R Square is .179 or 17.9%. The result shows that the percentage of the contribution regulatory variable affects the functioning of the family by 17.9%. In contrast, the remaining 82.1% were influenced by other factors not examined in this study.
Emotion regulation is divided into two strategies, namely cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Both are predictors that represent how emotion regulation works in influencing family functioning. The findings of this study indicate that cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression together contribute to the functioning of families of married emerging adulthood couples.
The results of research on emotional regulation using cognitive reappraisal strategies with family functioning have a negative or opposite effect, so it can be seen that the higher the emotional regulation of cognitive reappraisal, the lower the family functioning score, which can be interpreted as the healthier the family functioning and vice versa. Thus, partially the effective contribution of cognitive reappraisal to family functioning is 4.5%.
Then the influence of emotional regulation through expressive suppression strategies with family functioning has a positive or unidirectional influence. The higher the expressive suppression emotion regulation, the higher the family functioning score, which is interpreted as having more problems with family functioning and vice versa. Thus, the effective contribution of expressive suppression to family functioning is 13.4%.
These results are in line with Gross and John (2003). They stated that expressive suppression emotion regulation strategies can damage social functioning because it interferes with receiving social information, while cognitive reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that tends to be more socially adaptive and well-being. The study results are also in line with the research of Velotti et al. (2015), which shows that the continuous use of expressive suppression strategies can be detrimental to the quality of marital relationships. This study categorizes family functioning variables into two categories, namely problematic and healthy family functioning. This category is under the original instrument category reference, which the author adapted and wrote in the book Evaluating and Treating Families: The McMaster Approach by Ryan, Epstein, Keitner, Miller, and Bishop in 2005. Based on this, the lower the family functioning variable in this study shows problematic family functioning. Problematic family functioning means that the family copes with the tasks that exist in the family ineffectively. In contrast, healthy family functioning means that the family can cope with the tasks in the family productively or effectively so that there is a growth environment for each family member socially, psychologically, and biologically (Ryan et al., 2005).
Therefore, through the research results, the effect of expressive suppression is 13.4%; if the higher it is, it will decrease the functioning of the family, while the lower it will maximize the functioning of the family. According to Velotti et al. (2015), declining marital relationship quality may be caused by the continued use of expressive suppression strategies. Individuals at the age of emerging adulthood who are married tend to face more challenges because, according to Arnett (2015), the age of emerging adulthood is an age of instability. After all, individuals at that stage are still exploring themselves and many plans in their lives will face changes that are not easy, this instability does not make them functional. As a result, a healthy family is impossible for emerging adults to marry into the family they build. This instability leads to the emotional processing strategy carried out by married couples. Expressive suppression tends to lead married couples to conceal, inhibit, or reduce the behavior of ongoing emotional expression. If an evaluation of cognitive reappraisal does not accompany it, is predicted to reduce family functioning. Research respondent data also showed that there are 150 respondents (94.3%) with high cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation while high expressive suppression emotion regulation is only found in 75 respondents (47.2%). The data illustrates that the respondents in this study quite a lot used both emotion regulation strategies but were dominated by the use of cognitive reappraisal strategies. This is in line with Zimmermann and Iwanski (2014) who argue that the emerging adulthood period is flexible in the use of emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, cross-tabulation of family functioning variables showed that the majority of respondents have healthy family functioning and cross-tabulations of cognitive reappraisal emotional regulation variables show that the majority of respondents are mostly high. For expressive suppression emotion regulation, the results showed that the highest percentage of use of expressive suppression emotion regulation is found in 54% of female respondents, while the highest use of expressive suppression emotion regulation is found in 62.5% of male respondents.
The cross-tabulation distribution of cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation shows a high predominance of tendencies in both men and women, while the cross-tabulation of expressive suppression emotion regulation shows a high predominance of a tendency in men and a low predominance in women. This is supported by research from Gross and John (2003) that found no consistent difference in the use of cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation between men and women, whereas the use of high expressive suppression emotion regulation was more prevalent in men than women. Research from Doss et al. (2009) showed that there was a decrease in the quality of the relationship when the couple started having children and became parents. Based on Velotti et al. (2015), the decline in relationship quality can be caused by the continuous use of expressive suppression strategies. According to Velotti et al. (2015) may be caused by the continued use of expressive suppression strategies.

Conclusion
The study results show a significant influence between emotional regulation and family functioning in married emerging adulthood. The influence of cognitive reappraisal emotional regulation on family functioning is negative, and the influence of expressive suppression regulation on family functioning is positive. The direction of this influence shows that the higher the emotional regulation of cognitive reappraisal, the lower the score of family functioning, which can be interpreted as the healthier the functioning of the family and vice versa. Then the higher the emotional regulation of expressive suppression, the higher the score of family functioning, which is interpreted as the more problematic the functioning of the family and vice versa.
This research illustrates that healthy family functioning can still be achieved for families built by individuals in the age period of emerging adulthood. In addition, in the context of marriage in individuals in the emerging adulthood age period, it is also apparent that there are specific more adaptive emotion regulation strategies, namely the use of cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation strategies so that married emerging adults better use these types of strategies to seek better family functioning. Healthy within the family and expressive suppression processing tend to appear at that age.
Further research was done by improving the limitations in this study, it can be recommended out the same research with more various demographic data. This research mostly got female respondents than male respondents (Balzarotti et al., 2016), also dominated by the age of marriage in the first year and it is not known specifically in what month or day so that it is possible that among these respondents there are respondents who have just had a marriage relationship. Homogeneity problems can cause restrictions on efforts to generalize the two variables. Furthermore, it is also recommended for further studies review other variables that can moderate these two variables.