Emotion Regulation and Defense Mechanisms Among Young Adults
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Abstract
There is a rich pool of research on emotion regulation but not much that suggests adaptiveness and mal-adaptiveness of defense mechanisms that young adults use as a behavioral outcome. Most empirical studies have not examined the link between daily regulatory strategies and every day defenses. The current study was carried out with the purpose of analyzing emotion regulation strategies and defense styles used among young adults. Total, 350 young adults, belonging to the age group of 18-25, were included in the study through random sampling method. All the participants were expected to complete Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40). Results indicated that the use of defense mechanisms showed a significant increase as both cognitive appraisal and emotion expression strategy scores increased. Further, specific defenses also showed significant results.