The investigation of the relation between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depression and anxiety in university students

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the cognitive emotion regulation strategies differ in depression and anxiety and which strategies are anxiety-specific and which strategies are depression-specific. Method: 350 students and graduates in Marmara University and Işık Universiyt participated in this study. The age range of the participants is between 18-30. The participants completed research tools including Sociodemographic Form, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale, Beck Depression Scale and Beck Anxiety Scale. Participants splitted up the groups according to the depression and anxiety scores obtained from the scales. The control group (with low depression and anxiety scores), the depression group (with high depression score and low anxiety score), the anxiety group (with low depression score and high anxiety score) and the depression+anxiety group (with high depression and anxiety score) were formed. Results: Regarding the cognitive emotion regulation strategies, there was a significant difference between 4 groups in terms of the frequency of use self-blame, rumination, positive reappraisal, refocus on planing, positive refocusing, putting into perspective and catastrophizing strategies. Compared to anxiety group, depression group and anxiety + depression group, self-blame were significantly higher in depression and depression + anxiety group than anxiety group. Rumination and catastrophizing were significantly higher in the depression + anxiety group than in the depression and anxiety groups. No significant difference was found between the 3 groups for positive refocusing. Refocus on planning was significantly lower in depression + anxiety group than anxiety group. Positive reappraisal was significantly lower in depression and depression + anxiety group than in anxiety group. Putting into perspective was significantly lower in depression and depression+ anxiety group than in anxiety group. Conclusion: Knowing which cognitive emotional regulation strategies are more frequently used in depression and anxiety and which are customized on anxiety will shed light on the treatment process. Key words: Depression, anxiety, cognitive emotion regulation strategies