How to Improve the Well-Being of Youths: An Exploratory Study of the Relationships Among Coping Style, Emotion Regulation, and Subjective Well-Being Using the Random Forest Classification and Structural Equation Modeling

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 12; p. 637712
• Main Authors: Jiang, Xiaowei, Ji, Lili, Chen, Yanan, Zhou, Chenghao, Ge, Chunlei, Zhang, Xiaolin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 26.04.2021
• Subjects: coping style; emotion regulation; Psychology; random forest (bagging) and machine learning; structural equation model; subjective well-being; emotion regulation; random forest (bagging) and machine learning; coping style; subjective well-being; structural equation model
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.637712

The relationship between coping styles and subjective well-being (SWB) has recently received considerable empirical and theoretical attention in the scientific literature. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship have primarily remained unclear. The present research aimed to determine whether emotion regulation mediated the relationship between coping styles and subjective well-being (SWB). Our hypothesis is based on the integration of theoretical models among 1,247 Chinese college students. The SWB questionnaire, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used to correlate SWB, emotion regulation strategies, and coping styles, respectively. The random forest method was applied to predict life satisfaction and estimate the average variable importance to life satisfaction. The results indicated that positive coping can indirectly influence life satisfaction via cognitive reappraisal and indirectly influence expression suppression via positive affect. Negative coping can indirectly influence negative affect via expression suppression. Besides, negative coping was positively associated with both expression suppression and negative affect. Cognitive reappraisal was found to be positively associated with positive affect. The findings indicated that coping style is essential for the SWB of college students. These findings provide insight into how coping styles impact SWB and have implications for developing and assessing emotion regulation-based interventions.