The Art of Emotion Regulation: Medical Students’ Emotion Regulation Behavior Towards an Upcoming Exam

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Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine students’ emotions, specifically joy, hope, anxiety, frustration and their emotion regulation in the days leading up to an important exam. A total of 208 medical students participated in an experience-sampling study over ten consecutive days. Multilevel latent profile analyses revealed six emotion regulation patterns at Level 1 (situational) and seven profiles at Level 2 (person). These findings indicate that students use specific combinations of emotion regulation strategies simultaneously and that these patterns vary among students. Additionally, students employed different patterns based on the context, whether it was thinking about the exam or not, and depending on the experience of specific emotions, highlighting the context- and emotion-specificity of emotion regulation among students.

Authors

• Tanja Bross, University of Augsburg

• Nadja Karossa, University of Augsburg

• Thomas Rotthoff, University of Augsburg

• Ann-Kathrin Schindler, University of Augsburg

• Sarah Junginger, University of Augsburg

• Markus Dresel, University of Augsburg

• Ingo Kollar, University of Augsburg

• Ulrike Elisabeth Nett, Augsburg University