The aim of the study was to examine the extent to which cognitive emotion regulation strategies mediate the relationship between personality traits and students’ mental health, operationalized through symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, in an academic setting. The sample consisted of 151 students, with a mean age of 22.24 years (M = 22.24, SD = 4.41). The instruments used included the Big Five Inventory, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using mediation models with bootstrap estimation of confidence intervals. The results indicated that neuroticism was the strongest predictor of negative emotional states, with self-blame playing a significant mediating role in the relationships with symptoms of psychological distress. At the same time, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness were negatively associated with emotional distress, and these relationships were partially mediated by both maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The findings suggest that cognitive emotion regulation strategies represent a mechanism through which personality traits influence students’ psychological functioning, highlighting the importance of their inclusion in preventive programs aimed at reducing emotional distress and strengthening adaptive mechanisms necessary for coping with academic demands.
Simić et al. (Thu,) studied this question.