Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Background & Objectives: Adolescence is one of the most critical periods of life associated with significant physiological, psychological and social changes which have important effects on adolescent adjustment. Adolescents need to understand the world of adults and adults should understand the problems of adolescents. Adaptation is a mechanism that empowers people to solve adaptive problems and use emotional information; it also enables them to regulate the expression of emotions along with the context and environment. Compatibility has different dimensions: social compatibility, emotional compatibility, and academic compatibility. Adaptability in educational situations, referred to as "academic adaptability," includes the individual's ability to cope with academic demands and schoolwork. Emotion regulation is another key factor in well–being which plays an important role in adapting to stressful life events and can have tangible effects on students' academic performance. This study aimed to predict students' academic adjustment based on emotional regulation in students in Karaj.
Methods: The research method was correlational descriptive. The statistical population of this study included all senior male and female middle school students in the city of Karaj, Iran during the academic year of 2017–18. A sample of 200 students was selected by multi–stage cluster sampling from two boys’ and two girls' schools. The research samples were randomly selected from the third grade. The inclusion criteria were the students’ willingness to participate in the study, having the required physical and mental ability to participate in the study, and lacking history of mental illness based on the initial assessment by researchers. The exclusion criteria included reluctance to participate in the study or to continue the participation for any reason. Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) and the Academic Adjustment Questionnaire (Baker and Siryk, 1989) were distributed among participants. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum) and inferential statistics (the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis) to evaluate the relationships between variables, in SPSS version 23 software. The significance level of statistical tests was 0.05.
Results: The results showed a positive and significant relationship between academic adjustment and emotional regulation (r=0.901, p<0.001). Also, based on the results of regression analysis, the subscales of non–acceptance of negative emotions (β=0.462, p<0.001), difficulties engaging in goal–directed behaviors in times of helplessness (β=0.301, p<0.001), difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors in times of helplessness (β=0.172, p<0.001), limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies (β=0.395, p<0.001), lack of emotional awareness (β=0.183, p<0.001), lack of emotional clarity (β=0.145, p<0.001) and in general, emotional regulation (β=0.592, p<0.001) had a predictive role in explaining academic adjustment.
Conclusion: Based on the research findings, emotional regulation can predict academic adjustment in adolescents.