The predictive effect of university students' positive childhood experiences and cognitive emotion regulation skills on psychological well-being

The main goal of this study was to investigate the predictive effect of university students' positive childhood experiences and cognitive emotion regulation strategies on their level of psychological well being. The scientific approach of the current study was a quantitative descriptive relational screening model. Positive childhood experiences and cognitive emotion regulation strategies of university students were examined with some demographic variables. The sample of this study consisted of 362 people, 260 female and 102 male whose ages ranged between 18-70, who studied graduate and undergraduate level at different universities in Turkey. Participants were reached by random sampling method, based on volunteerism. In order to measure the quantitative data of the study The Psychological Wellbeing Scale, The Positive Childhood Experiences Scale and The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Scale were used. Besides, participants' ages, gender, class level, number of siblings, romantic relationship status and the school they study were collected via The Sociodemographic Form. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 21 packaged programmes. In data analysis the descriptive statistics of measurement instruments, frequency distributions, Independent Sample t tests, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation Analyses, and Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis. In the result of these analyses the regression model was statistically significant, which indicated that 35% of psychological well being was predicted by positive childhood experiences and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Additionally, there were moderately positive significant relationship with psychological wellbeing and positive childhood experiences, and positive relationship between psychological wellbeing and the Positive Refocusing, Refocusing on Plan, Positive Reappraisal, Putting into Perspective subscales of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies, and negative relationship between SelfBlaming and Catastrophizing subscales. In the current study, there is no significant difference between psychological wellbeing of university students according to their gender, number of siblings, and their school type. However, the psychological wellbeing scores of participants over 30 years were significantly different from and more than the scores of 18-20 aged group. Additionally, the undergraduate students' psychological wellbeing level was significantly higher than the freshman and sophomore students. According to the romantic relationship status, the married students' psychological wellbeing scores were significantly different from the single and partnered students and higher them.