The association between emotional regulation strategies and mental health outcomes among Malaysian undergraduates.

Emotional regulation (ER) is defined as the ability to manage emotions based on how they are experienced, evaluated, and expressed. ER involves cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES) strategies which are postulated to contribute to depression, anxiety, and stress. This study aims to explore the association between emotional regulation with depression, anxiety and stress among Malaysian undergraduate students. 278 undergraduate students from four faculties of a university in the Klang Valley randomly chosen using an online randomizer participated in an online cross-sectional study using convenient sampling. Participants completed the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Descriptive analysis examined sociodemographic data distribution. Bivariate analyses and multiple linear regression explored associations between emotional regulation and depression, anxiety and stress. Respondents were mainly females (67.3 %), Malay (51.4 %) and from the B40 socio-economic status (39.6 %). Nearly 1 in 5 (19.8 %) respondents fell into the moderate to extremely severe severity category for depression. 1 in 4 (27 %) respondents reported moderate to extremely severe anxiety. About 1 in 7 (14.7 %) respondents experienced moderate to extremely severe levels of stress. Expressive suppression was a significant positive predictor for depression (β = 0.466, p < 0.001), anxiety (β = 0.340, p < 0.001) and stress (β = 0.309, p < 0.001) while cognitive reappraisal significantly negatively predicted depression (β = -0.221, p = 0.002) and anxiety (β = -0.160, p = 0.027). The findings of this study emphasized the importance of emotional regulation skills in regulating mental health among students. A repeat study with larger sample size and further research is needed to develop effective intervention strategies.