Comparative Analysis of Results from a Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Between International Students from West Asia and Xinjiang College Students in China

BACKGROUND: The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) is a cognitive and emotional tool measuring how individuals deal with stressful life events. However differences exist in the results of CERQ among individuals. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to investigate the CERQ results and depressive symptoms of students at our university (both local and international students) in order to provide further guidance for psychological interventions. METHODS: 255 sophomore and junior international students (171 male and 84 female) and 262 sophomore and junior Chinese students (124 male and 138 female) were investigated using CERQ, ASLEC and SDS questionnaires. Results were analyzed using SPSS 16.0. RESULT: Compared to Chinese students, international students more often used cognitive adjustment methods such as “positive refocusing”,“re-focus on planning” and “catastrophizing”. In regression equations where depression symptoms were used as the dependent variable, “self-blaming” and “catastrophizing”positively contributed to depression symptoms in international students, while“acceptance” was negatively correlated with depression symptoms.In Chinese students, “life events score” and “catastrophizing”were positively correlated withdepression symptoms, while “positive re-evaluating” was negatively correlated with depression symptoms. CONCLUSION: Among students of different races, positive coping methods were negatively correlated with depression symptoms and could possibly prevent the occurrence of depression, while negative coping methods were positively correlated with depression.Encouraging students to use adaptive coping methods during psychological intervention is an effective way to adjust cognitions and behavior for depression prevention.