How University Students’ Strategies for Regulating Achievement Emotions Matter for Their Emotions, Well-Being, and Health (Poster 27)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 1:30 p.m.
  In Poster Session: Patterns, Networks, Trajectories, and More! Exploring Individual Beliefs and Diverse Correlates

Abstract

Students’ achievement emotions profoundly influence their learning, well-being, and educational trajectories. Understanding how students regulate these emotions is crucial for fostering their mental health and flourishing. We used a contextualized, emotion-specific instrument for measuring university students’ (N = 198) use of six potential strategies for managing three prevalent and functionally important emotions (enjoyment, anxiety, boredom) and examined relations with emotions, well-being, and health over time based on a prospective study design (one semester; four assessment waves). Students’ emotion regulation was substantially linked to prior as well as subsequent emotions, well-being, and health. Findings suggest that while frequent reliance on situation selection strategies may undermine well-being, students may particularly benefit from building regulatory habits that involve reappraisal and competence development strategies.

Authors

• Kristina Stockinger, University of Augsburg

• Markus Dresel, University of Augsburg

• Herbert W. Marsh, Australian Catholic University

• Reinhard Pekrun, University of Essex