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. 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. 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). Individuals with optimism have higher general health and optimism is linked with both higher levels of coping engagement and lower levels of avoidance.