Emotion Regulation Strategies as a Predictor of Life Satisfaction in University Students

Abstract Background: Childhood trauma (CT) is considered as a highly risk factor for depression. Although the pathway of CT to depression, especially the mediating or moderating effects of cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERS) or neuroticism, have investigated by several studies, the results were inconsistent and there is a paucity of full models among these interactive factors. This study aims to examine the relationships among CT, adaptive / maladaptive CERS, neuroticism and current depression symptoms in university students.Methods: We recruited 3009 students, aged averagely 18.00 (SD = 0.772) years, from universities in Hunan province in 2019. A moderated mediation model was built to examine the relationships among CT, CERS, neuroticism and current depression using the SPSS PROCESS 3.5 macro. We conducted bootstrapping of regression estimates with 5,000 samples and 95% confidence interval.Results:Results revealed that the significant mediating effects of adaptive CERS (β = 0.0117; 95% CI: 0.0061 to 0.0181) and maladaptive CERS (β = 0.0278; 95% CI: 0.0161 to 0.0401) between CT and depression were observed, accounting for 5.690% and 13.521% of the total effect respectively. Then, moderated mediation analyses results showed that neuroticism simultaneously moderated the direct effect of CT on current depression (β = 0.035; 95% CI: 0.001 to 0.009), and the indirect effects of CT on current depression through adaptive CERS (adaptive CERS – current depression: β = -0.034; 95% CI: -0.007 to -0.001) and maladaptive CERS (maladaptive CERS – current depression: β = 0.157; 95% CI: 0.017 to 0.025). However, the moderating effects of neuroticism in the indirect paths from CT to adaptive CERS (β = 0.037; 95% CI: 0.000 to 0.014) and maladaptive CERS (β = -0.001; 95% CI: -0.006 to 0.005) were not significant.Conclusions: This study provides powerful evidences through a large university students sample for the mediating role of adaptive / maladaptive CERS and the moderating role of neuroticism between CT and current depression. This manifests that cognitive emotion regulation may be a vital factor for people who suffered from CT and current depression. Furthermore, the influence of neuroticism in this process cannot be ignored.

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Examining the interplay of emotion regulation strategies, social stress, and gender in predicting life satisfaction of emerging adults

Personality and Individual Differences ◽

10.1016/j.paid.2021.111255 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 185 ◽

pp. 111255

Author(s):

Xu Jiang ◽

Joradn Moreno ◽

Zijia Ng

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Emerging Adults ◽

Social Stress ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽

Regulation Strategies ◽

And Gender

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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 ◽

10.3390/ijerph18094727 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (9) ◽

pp. 4727

Author(s):

Nadezhda Golovchanova ◽

Katja Boersma ◽

Henrik Andershed ◽

Karin Hellfeldt

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Life Satisfaction ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Fear Of Crime ◽

Well Being ◽

Advanced Age ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽

Cognitive Emotion Regulation ◽

Depressive Feelings ◽

Regulation Strategies

Fear of crime is a substantial problem for older adults and is associated with reduced subjective well-being. However, less is known about factors that could moderate the associations between fear of crime and mental health problems and well-being in advanced age. Cognitive emotion regulation could serve as a potentially buffering factor for adverse health outcomes related to fear of crime due to its potential importance in managing feelings when facing threatening situations. The current study investigated the associations between affective fear of crime with depressive feelings and life satisfaction and examined whether adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies moderated these associations in a sample of older adults (age 64–106) in Sweden (N = 622). The results showed that affective fear of crime was associated with more depressive feelings, less life satisfaction, and more frequent use of such maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies as rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others. Moreover, rumination and self-blame moderated the associations between affective fear of crime and life satisfaction. Adaptive emotion regulation strategies were not associated with affective fear of crime and did not decrease the strength of its association with depressive feelings and with life satisfaction. These findings allow us to conclude that maladaptive emotion regulation could be considered a vulnerability factor in the association of fear of crime with life satisfaction.

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