Subjective well-being, cognitive flexibility, perceived stres and emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents: Testing alternative models

The aim of this study was to test the relationships between subjective well-being, cognitive flexibility, perceived stress and emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents through three alternative models. The participants of the study were high school students from 9th to 12th grade, a total of 1053 adolescents. Of the participants aged 14-19 (x̄: 16.16, SD: 1.22), 561 (53.3%) were female and 492 (46.7%) were male. The "Student subjective well-being scale," "Perceived stress scale," "Cognitive flexibility scale," "Difficulties in emotion regulation scale," and "Personal Information form" were used to collect data. Structural equation modeling and Bootsrap test (5000 resampling) were used to test the research hypotheses. As a result of the analyses, it was determined that model 3, in which cognitive flexibility was considered as the independent variable, perceived stress and emotion regulation difficulties as mediator variables, and subjective well-being as the dependent variable, produced acceptable values. As a result of the analyzes conducted on Model 3, it was found that the mediating effects of both perceived stress and emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and subjective well-being were significant, and the indirect effect through perceived stress was stronger than the indirect effect through emotion regulation difficulties. The findings were discussed in accordance with the relevant literature and recommendations were presented.