Students’ Regulation of Anxiety and Hope – A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis

Academic examinations are highly emotional for university students, making emotion regulation (ER) essential for preventing or reducing the negative consequences of negative emotions on well-being and academic performance. Initial theorizing and research suggests that flexibly applying combinations of strategies can promote successful ER. However, studies using intraindividual approaches to examine ER strategy use in specific contexts and concrete situations, across multiple occasions, are lacking. Moreover, the combinations of strategies that are used by students within different contexts, and the adaptiveness of different strategies for regulating different emotions, remain unexplored. To address these gaps, we conducted an experience sampling study to identify patterns of students’ momentary ER and to examine how context (achievement-related vs. nonachievement-related), emotions (anxiety vs. hope), and academic performance function as potential covariates. Over 200 university students rated their current anxiety, hope, and use of eight ER strategies over a seven-day period, six times a day, prior to an important exam. The results of a two-level latent profile analysis revealed distinct profiles of ER that differed on both levels. Intraindividually, ER patterns differed as a function of type of emotion and context experienced. More specifically, momentary use of multiple strategies tended to be associated with greater anxiety, while in the achievement context this association was reduced. Interindividually, students’ tendencies to use different ER patterns were not related to test performance. Overall, our findings suggest that ER strategy selection depends on both context and emotions experienced, and advance ER research by considering intraindividual strategy use in concrete achievement situations.