BIO

Hi, my name is Pia Rugel, and I am from the 305 - Miami, Florida. I am currently a sophomore studying psychology and minoring in criminology. My research interests include mental health, clinical psychology, and social psychology. In the future, I plan to continue my education through graduate school to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. After obtaining my PhD, I aim to become licensed and begin practicing therapy.

Emotion Regulation Strategies Among Students in STEM: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Undergraduate students pursuing majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields tend to experience higher levels of negative emotions compared to students in other fields. Previous research has been dedicated to discovering the optimal way of dealing with negative emotions through the use of emotion regulation strategies. While previous researchers have found emotional regulation as an effective way to cope with negative emotions, little research investigated multiple emotion regulation strategies and their association with academic performance (e.g., course grade, GPA) and mental health (e.g., levels of anxiety and depression). To fill this gap, we used a self-report survey to measure students’ levels of emotion regulation strategies, academic performance, and mental well-being to gain a deeper understanding of the strategies students use to navigate their academic challenges and their impacts. Based on the trends within our raw data, we expect to see a positive correlation between a student’s use of adaptive emotional regulation strategies, their GPA and mental well-being; similarly, we expect to observe a negative correlation between the students use of maladaptive strategies, mental health, and their GPA. These analyses can help optimize the performance of students in STEM and find better strategies to deal with their negative emotions, without trading off academic performance nor mental health.

Keywords: STEM, Emotion, STEM students, Emotion Regulation