The effect of emotion regulation on happiness and resilience of university students: The chain mediating role of learning motivation and target positioning

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect andmechanism among emotion regulation, relationship,happiness, learning motivation, target positioning, and resilience of university students. METHOD: A total of 904 university students in China were included in this cross-sectional survey from April to May this year. The self-administered questionnaires, including the adapted Mental Health Scale with a Healthy Personality Orientation for College Students, were used to construct structural equations to test the chain mediating effects of learning motivation and target positioning based on a multi-stage whole group sample of university students. RESULT: Emotion regulation indirectly affected happiness through the mediating effect of interpersonal relationship (Med = −0.387, p = 0.001). Learning motivation and target positioning play the chain mediating role in the effect of emotion regulation on happiness (Med = −0.307, p = 0.001) and resilience (Med = −0.275, p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Emotion regulation indirectly affected happiness and resilience through the chain mediating effect of learning motivation and target positioning.