Flourishing: positive emotion regulation strategies of pharmacy students

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate whether flourishing students use different emotion regulation strategies from moderately mentally healthy and languishing students. Methods Registered pharmacy students (779) at the North‐West University in South Africa completed the emotion regulation profile and Mental Health Continuum – Short Form. The data were analysed using a latent class analysis in Mplus 7.31. Key findings Three latent classes were revealed comprising languishing (14.2%), moderately mentally healthy (47.5%) and flourishing students (38.3%). Students who flourished were more likely to use adaptive positive emotion regulation strategies (savouring the moment, behavioural display, capitalising). Students who languished were inclined to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (inattention, fault finding, external attribution). Conclusion Flourishing students increase or maintain their positive emotions and refrain from decreasing their positive emotions