Self-regulation of emotions in relation to students' attitudes towards school life

Abstract

The paper focuses on assessing, how the use of emotional regulation strategies and perceived position in formal and informal school life processes are related. The paper also aims to identify, which of the assessed school life processes are involved in the use of emotional regulation strategies, i.e. the use of adaptive emotional regulation strategies and non-adaptive emotional regulation strategies, or in the suppression of emotional manifestations. The research was carried out on a sample of 1,133 upper-primary school students using Cognitive Regulation of Emotion and Students’ Attitudes to School Life questionnaires. The results imply that the degree of use of adaptive strategies is affected by a combination of predominantly strengthening stimuli in the school environment, i.e. the perception of success and opportunity, and social inclusion in peer groups. On the contrary, high-risk environmental attributes connected with a feeling of negative experience at school play a larger part in the use of non-adaptive emotional regulation strategies. A combination of two opposing stimuli, i.e. a negative experience of school life and a positive approach by the teacher towards the pupils, contributes to the suppression of emotional manifestations. The perception of position in formal and informal school life processes as an important prerequisite for the use of students’ self-regulating mechanisms in the school environment.