First Advisor

Marilyn Welsh

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Thesis

Date Created

12-1-2019

Department

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Psychological Sciences, SPS Student Work

Abstract

Emotional regulation can be best defined as a socially acceptable emotional response to experiences and circumstances of the everyday human experience. Emotional regulation (ER) plays a major role in handling stress, adaptively, in the collegiate lifestyle. This research examined the associations between emotional regulation, risk-taking, and college adaptation among 96 students at a mid-sized university in Colorado. The online-surveying website included five different measures of emotional regulation, college adaptation, and risk-taking. Results showed difficulties with emotional regulation positively correlate more with expressive suppression and negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal. The adaptive strategy of cognitive reappraisal had a positive relationship with college adaptation, while ER difficulties negatively predicted college adjustment. Ethical risk taking was negatively correlated with college adaptation but was not found to be a mediating variable between ER and college adaptation. Future research should continue to examine the associations among these constructs to inform interventions that can facilitate a healthy transition and adaptation to college.

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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