Role of Some Demographic Factors on Emotion Regulation, Empathy and Life Orientation among College Students

This study examines the link between emotional regulation, empathy, and life orientation using data from 106 college students, comprising 52 undergraduates and 54 postgraduates. Participants completed the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire, Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, and Life Orientation Test–Revised. Results indicate significant gender, age, education level, and field of study differences in emotion regulation, empathy, and life orientation. Males tend to have higher cognitive reappraisal, total emotion regulation and optimism while females exhibit greater total empathy. Older individuals show higher expressive suppression and total emotion regulation compared to younger ones. Postgraduates display higher levels of cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, total emotion regulation, and total empathy than undergraduates. Science students also demonstrate higher levels of these traits compared to arts students. Bivariate correlations highlight strong links between emotion regulation and life orientation, with cognitive and expressive emotion regulation strongly associated with total emotion regulation, and total empathy linked to optimism. Additionally, total empathy emerges as a predictor of optimism.