Understanding the role of emotion regulation flexibility in the association between daily stressors and emotional disorder symptoms in ethnic minority college students

PROJECT SUMMARY Obtaining higher education is a pathway to upward social mobility, but this path is not equal for all students. For instance, most first-generation (i.e., parents do not have a four-year degree) college students (CS) are likely to identify as a racial or ethnic minority, come from low socio-economic backgrounds, and question whether they belong and can succeed in academia. Indeed, ethnic minority CS are designated as at-risk, with the highest dropout rates in postsecondary education. Ethnic minority CS also experience additional stressors in addition to their first-generation status (e.g., experiences with racism and discrimination, educational hegemony, acculturative stress, and financial concerns). These daily stressors are well-established risk factors for emotional disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety disorders) and underscore the importance of one’s ability to regulate emotions during stressful situations. However, the mental health of ethnic minority CS, particularly first- generation CS, is vastly understudied, and a lack of representation perpetuates health disparities. Notably, a critical limitation of previous emotion regulation (ER) work is taking a dichotomous approach that emphasizes the adaptiveness or maladaptiveness of specific strategies, which may not be congruent with specific cultural perspectives on emotions. Recently, various investigators proposed that successful ER is the ability to flexibly implement and adjust a range of ER strategies given daily contextual demands (i.e., ER flexibility). Measuring ER flexibility in real-time is critical to understanding the dynamic, contextual nature of ER. Given the impact of daily stressors and emotional disorders on ethnic minority CS (e.g., poorer academic performance, relationship instability, suicidal ideation), there is an urgent need to explore ER in this population. The primary objective of this project is to understand the role of ER flexibility in the association between daily stressors and emotional disorder symptoms in ethnic minority CS. ER flexibility will be assessed using ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) administered three times daily for 14 days. Aim 1 will involve conducting three focus groups with ethnic minority CS to collect qualitative and quantitative data on types of daily stressors experienced, beliefs about ER and mental health, and ER goals. These focus groups will inform the design of the EMAs. Aims 2 and 3 will use EMA data from a novel sample of ethnic minority CS (those who did not participate in Aim 1). Aim 2 will examine how ER flexibility mediates the association between daily stressors and emotional disorder symptoms. Aim 3 will explore how acculturation and first-generation CS status differences influence these constructs. This project will contribute substantially to understanding the mental health needs of ethnically diverse students and will create a foundation for future research to develop and test culturally-tailored interventions, which may facilitate better mental health, address ongoing health disparities disproportionately impacting ethnic minority CS, and increase their retention in academia and subsequent pathways out of poverty.