The mediating role of emotional intensity, emotional self-efficacy and emotional experience in the relationship between university students' emoti̇on malleability beli̇efs and emotion regulation competence

The main purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of emotional intensity, emotional self-efficacy, and emotional experience in the relationship between university students' emotion malleability beliefs and emotion regulation competence. The second aim of the study was to adapt the Emotion Regulation Competence Scale, Emotional Belief Questionnaire and Emotional Reactivity Scale into Turkish. Relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. In line with the aims of the study, two different research groups were studied. Research group-I is the group in which the adaptation data of Emotion Regulation Competence Scale, Emotional Belief Scale and Emotional Reactivity Scale into Turkish were obtained. Research group-I consists of 526 (310 female and 216 male) university students (310 female and 216 male) who continue their education in a total of 6 departments within 5 faculties of Mersin University in the Spring semester of 2021-2022 academic year. Research group-II is the group in which the mediating role of emotional intensity, emotional self-efficacy, and emotional experience in the relationship between university students' emotion malleability beliefs and emotion regulation competence of university students was examined with the measurement tools adapted into Turkish and other measurement tools. The research group-II consists of 922 (458 female and 464 male) university students (458 female and 464 male) who continue their education in a total of 9 departments within 6 faculties affiliated to Mersin University in the fall semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. Personal Information Form, Emotion Regulation Competence Scale, Emotional Belief Questionnaire, Emotional Reactivity Scale, Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale, Positive and Negative Emotional Experience Scale were used as data collection tools. Confirmatory factor analyses, Pearson correlation analysis and bootstrapping-based multiple mediation test were used in the study. The significance of all data obtained was tested at .05 level. The study consists of two stages. In the first stage, Emotion Regulation Competence Scale, Emotional Belief Scale and Emotional Reactivity Scale were adapted into Turkish for university students. As a result of the analyses, it was determined that the Emotion Regulation Competence Scale, Emotional Belief Questionnaire and Emotional Reactivity Scale were valid and reliable measurement tools. According to the mediation analysis conducted in the second stage, the mediating role of emotional intensity in the relationship between university students' belief in being able to change their emotions and emotion regulation competence was not found, while the mediating role of emotional self-efficacy and emotional experience was found to be significant. The findings of the study were discussed in the light of the theoretical framework and related researches, and suggestions for practices and future research were presented.