The roles of difficulty in emotion regulation and negative core beliefs in risky behaviors of university students

This study aimed to investigate risky behaviors among Turkish early adult university students. In this context, risky behaviors were examined in terms of emotion regulation difficulties and negative core beliefs with the correlational survey method while using age, gender, depression and anxiety as control variables. In order to measure the relevant variables, Risky Behaviors Scale University Form (RBSUF) (Gençtanırım, 2014), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), Negative Core Beliefs Inventory (NCBI) (Osmo et al., 2018), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) (Spitzer et al., 1999), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) (Spitzer et al., 2006) and the demographic information form created for the study were used. 388 women (78.4%) and 107 males (21.6%) out of a total of 495 university students took part in the study via online form. Independent groups t-tests and chi-square tests were performed by using DERS and NCBI total and subscale scores, demographic and clinical data scores between the 27% group with the highest score and the 27% group with the lowest score in the total score of RBSUF and the subscales. Afterwards, Pearson correlation analysis was applied between the RBSUF, DERS, and NCBI data. Finally, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied by using the RBSUF data as the dependent variable, the DERS and NCBI data as the independent variables, and the GAD-7, PHQ-9, gender and age as the control variables. In all t-tests, statistically significant differences with large effect sizes were found in between lower and upper group of RBSUF with DERS and NCBI data. Second, the Pearson correlation analysis between DERS, NCBI, and RBSUF, excluding the substance use subscale, showed significant positive correlations in medium and small sizes. Finally, in hierarchical multiple regression analysis, difficulty in emotion regulation and negative core belief variables significantly explained the variance in risky behaviors at the level of 12%, after controlling for age, gender, and GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature