THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OPTIMISM AND EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES WITH GENERAL HEALTH

Individuals use different strategies in emotion regulation, some of them are
adoptive and maladaptive that relate to general health. Also individual life orientation such as
favorable expectancies for future is associated with health-related behavior. The purpose of the present
study was to investigate the relationship between optimism, emotion regulation strategies, and general
health of university students.
Materials & Methods: This correlational study included182 students (70 boys and 112 girls) that were
selected through random stratified sampling method from Urmia University students and were
assessed by the revised life orientation test (LOT-R), emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) and
general health-28 questionnaire (GHQ-28). The data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient
and regression analysis.
Result: Findings showed that there was a significant positive relationship between optimism with
general health (r=0/22, p<0.01). Of all research variables, only optimism was able to predict 0.06% of
variance of general health (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Individuals with optimism have higher general health and optimism is linked with both
higher levels of coping engagement and lower levels of avoidance.