Associating emotional expression skills and emotional state difficulties with somatization in university students: the case of Uşak University

In this study, the relationship between somatization, difficulties in emotion regulation, and emotional expression skills was investigated. The sample of the study consisted of 447 voluntary participants, 151 males and 296 females, aged between 18 and 23, studying at Uşak University. Participants were reached face-to-face. They were informed about the study's voluntary basis through a personal information form, and consent was obtained from those who volunteered to participate. To collect data, the Personal Information Form, Somatization Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form, and Emotional Expression Scale were used. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted for validity, and Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated for the reliability of the total scales and sub-dimensions. In the final stage, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to test the mean score differences in the context of the study's sub-hypotheses, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the relationships. SPSS IBM 26.0 and R Studio programs were used for data analysis. The lavaan package (Rosseel, 2012) was used for CFA. As a result of the study, there is a mean score difference in favor of women in all scores of somatization, difficulties in emotion regulation, and emotional expression according to gender differences among Uşak University students. According to the descriptive statistics created based on the age groups of Uşak University students, those aged 23 had the highest mean scores in emotion regulation difficulties, and those aged 22 had the lowest. Those aged 20 had the highest mean scores in emotional expression, and those aged 18 had the lowest. Those aged 18 had the highest mean scores in somatization, and those aged 22 had the lowest. One-way ANOVA was conducted to test the significance of the mean score differences of at least two age groups, and no statistically significant result was found. Therefore, multiple comparisons were not made. Among Uşak University students, there is a mean score difference in favor of those receiving psychological/psychiatric help in all scores of somatization, difficulties in emotion regulation, and emotional expression. The mean score differences in emotion regulation difficulties and somatization are statistically significant, while those in emotional expression are not statistically significant. Among Uşak University students, there is a mean score difference in favor of those needing psychological/psychiatric help in all scores of somatization, difficulties in emotion regulation, and emotional expression. There is a positive significant relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and emotional expression scores among Uşak University students. In other words, as emotion regulation difficulties increase, emotional expression skills also increase. There is a positive significant relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and somatization scores. In other words, as emotion regulation difficulties increase, somatization also increases. However, there is no significant relationship between emotional expression and somatization scores. In other words, the increase or decrease in emotional expression scores is not related to the increase or decrease in somatization scores.