EMOTIONAL REGULATION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The context of higher education is permeated by events that can be stressful and produce negative emotions. In this way, emotion regulation plays an important role in managing emotional experiences. These regulatory processes can include cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression strategies. This study sought to identify the instruments used to assess emotional regulation strategies in university students, as well as the main strategies used in this process. Therefore, a literature review was carried out in three databases, for publications from the last five years, with descriptive-correlational research and a sample of university students. Seven studies were identified from Portugal, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The studies used the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the State Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire. Among the emotional regulation strategies identified, the authors point to greater use of suppression of emotions, and difficulties in identifying emotions, which can be related to increased associated psychological responses. Therefore, emotion regulation is an important topic when considering the mental health of higher education students. Future studies must use measures of emotion regulation, seeking to relate them to the context of the students, so that measures can be planned to support emotion regulation processes adaptively.