Topic: Emotional Regulation of Young Adults in Academic Stress

Theory: James Gross of (ERQ)

Introduction

Emotion regulation is defined as the influence that a person has on what, when,
and how they will feel and convey their emotions, whether it be voluntary or involuntary
(Gross, 1998). This skill varies from individual to individual (Mayer et al., 2008). Due to
this variation, people may have different approaches on how they adjust and regulate
their emotions depending on the specific situation that they are in. This is suggested in
Gross and Thompson (2007) where the variation in emotion regulation shows how well
people can adapt to situations. Knowing how people vary in handling their emotions
may help them understand and make better adjustments in using appropriate emotion
expression in different situations. In the college setting, emotion regulation can be a
valuable tool for students as they are exposed to different types of situations that could
elicit various emotions. Having the ability to properly influence emotion expression can
help individuals adapt to the demands of a situation (Côté et al., 2010), and helping
college students become aware of how they regulate their emotions could enable them
to better control how they would respond. According to Kashdan et al., (2015),
individuals who are good at regulating emotions would have the ability to control their
emotion rather than being controlled by it. If applied in the college setting, this could
mean that, in demanding situations, students would be able to make sound decisions
rather than act based on emotional impulse.

Tools for measuring emotion regulation have been developed throughout the
years. One example is the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (Mayer et
al., 2002), a standardized test which measures the knowledge of people in identifying
the best way to regulate their emotions. This covers a general facet of emotion
regulation and can be applied to the general public. The knowledge of an individual in
terms of regulating their emotion could be considered as an important aspect in this
scale development process. However, knowledge alone cannot measure a person’s
ability to regulate emotion since the application of that knowledge could vary from
person to person. Another tool, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John,
2003), is a scale which tries to measure emotion regulation tendencies based on two
emotion regulation strategies: Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression.
While these tools are useful and well-known, they are not specifically aimed at the
situations that college students encounter in their college life, as well as in measuring
their abilities in tackling emotionally demanding situations in the college setting. In order
to properly measure the ability of these students in regulating their emotions, a scale
that is specifically designed for them is necessary to provide not only accurate, but also
relevant results.

In developing a scale pertaining to emotion regulation of college students, it is

important to identify which aspects of the construct are needed to be measured in order
to yield useful results. There are various research papers that highlight aspects of the
emotion regulation process. The paper by Wilms et al. (2020) divides emotion regulation
into two domains: Goals and Situational factors. According to this paper, an individual’s
ability and strategy in regulating emotions are based on their current goals (i.e., to stay
away or focus on the stimuli), and the situation that they are in. Another concept can be
found in a paper by Gross (1998) where emotion regulation is divided into: antecedent-
focused emotion regulation and response-focused emotion regulation. The former refers
to a process known as cognitive reappraisal (evaluating a given situation) while the
latter refers to expressive suppression (reducing the expression of an emotion).

The positive impacts of mindfulness on individuals' health have been the subject
of research undertaken by MacDonald (2017) and Baxter and Mandal (2017). These
studies have shown that mindfulness can reduce the severity of distress, speed up
emotional recovery, and promote goal-oriented behavior. Mindfulness teaches people
how to self-regulate their attention, recognize patterns in their thoughts and feelings,
and keep an open and accepting attitude toward others. There appears to be a
connection between mindfulness and emotion regulation processes since acceptance-
based strategies for reacting to negative emotions are connected with fewer psychiatric
symptoms and a greater sense of well-being.
Academic achievement is expected to be the primary focus of the world's future
leaders. Students have high expectations regarding the quality of their education and
achievements. However, students may experience academic stress due to the
numerous academic responsibilities they must fulfill. According to Crego et al. (2016),
academic stress is a condition that occurs when there is a mismatch between the needs
of the environment and the fundamental resources that students possess, causing them
to be burdened by ever-increasing pressures and demands. In situations of increasing
academic rivalry, students are subjected to various pressures and demands, which
cause them to experience increased levels of academic stress (Neseliler et al., 2017).
The many pressures cause this stress, and demands must be fulfilled.
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