Investigating the Role of Emotional Regulation in Predicting Future Prospects in Female Students

 Studies show that an unbalanced future outlook predicts delinquency, drug use, and high-risk sexual behaviors during adolescence. At the same time, having a hopeful mindset, having sufficient resources for purposeful thinking, and being familiar with the paths needed to achieve goals, lead to well-being in individuals. It also enhances a person's deep vision for the future, their learning activity, their longevity and their performance. Thus, the outlook for the future can affect a wide range of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. The future perspective, which is defined as the current prediction of future goals, can be created by setting motivational goals in the future and creating long term behavioral projects to achieve these goals. The problem for many young people and adolescents is that they live with a relatively short-term outlook, and it is difficult for them to see the future right now. In the field of education and learning, the ability to tolerate delays in reward is very important. Students have to choose between immediate reward and short pleasure, or long-term reward and long pleasure, and here is the future perspective that gives him the power to evaluate the future. The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of future prospects in female high school students in Shiraz.

The statistical population of the study is all female high school students in Shiraz (10865 people) who were studying in the academic year 1399-1400. Among them, 346 students were selected as a sample by multi-stage cluster sampling method and participated in the study. The research tool was a standard questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by professors and experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

The results of structural equation modeling showed that negative emotion regulation strategies have a positive effect on cognitive distortions, and positive emotion regulation strategies have a negative effect on cognitive distortions. Positive emotion regulation strategies have a positive effect on goal setting and cognitive distortions have a negative and significant effect on the future perspective and the effect of goal setting on the future perspective was positive. The results show that the strongest relationships in the model are related to the effect of negative emotion regulation strategies on cognitive distortions with a coefficient of 0.78 and then related to the effect of cognitive distortions on the future outlook with a coefficient of -0.55. The findings also show that apart from the relationship between negative emotion regulation strategies and rejected targeting (p <0.05), five other relationships have been confirmed in the model (p <0.05). If a person can manage and control his emotions, he will have more free space intellectually to focus on goals and goal setting. Cognitive distortions affect the future outlook (p <0.05) and the direction of the negative impact and the intensity of the impact is -0.55. Targeting has an effect on the future outlook (p <0.05) and the direction of the positive effect and the intensity of the effect is equal to 0.29. Therefore, the positive and negative strategies of the emotion regulation variable are the only external variable of the structural model of the research to which no one-way arrow is pointed. Finally, the existence of a significant positive causal relationship between goal setting and future perspective indicates that the more students expose themselves to goal setting or goal setting in the future, the more rapidly towards a future perspective. A more balanced and ideal future will move. In fact, by choosing goals in the desired area, the person is not only not bothered by the difficulty of the path, but also welcomes learning skills and doing difficult tasks to overcome obstacles in the way of his goal and pursues his goal. Acquires the necessary competence and avoids poor performance, and is more determined and does not doubt in its decision in the direction of the goal, and consequently, these measures tend to be more and more forward-looking. Will strengthen the more desirable in him.

Cognitive distortions have a negative and significant effect on the future outlook. The indirect and inverse effect of negative emotion regulation strategies, and the indirect and reinforcing effect of positive emotion regulation strategies on the future outlook in this study, reveal the need for planning to empower students in controlling and managing cognitive emotions.