A Study On The Relationship Between Gratitude, Emotional Regulation Self-efficacy And Mental Health Of High School Students

Nowadays,there were many psychological problems,and the influential factors of mental health were closely concerned,and the relationship between gratitude and mental health had attracted the attention of scholars from home and abroad,besides,they had achieved some research results.But so far,there had been little research on the internal mechanisms how gratitude affected mental health.As a new research topic,emotional regulation self-efficacy was becoming more and more concerned.Previous studies had found that emotional regulation self-efficacy not only could help control emotional impulse and promote mental health development through emotional regulation,but also had close relationship with gratitude.Therefore,studying the relationship between gratitude,emotional regulation self-efficacy and mental health can not only clarify the specific mechanism how gratitude affected mental health,but also enrich the research results in the field of emotion regulation self-efficacy.Senior high school students were prone to various psychological problems due to their special stage.It was necessary to pay more attention to this and find effective measures.Adopted “Adolescent Gratitude Scale”,“Emotional Regulation Self-efficacy Scale”(Chinese edition)and “Mental Health Inventory of Middle-School Students”,this research investigated 860 high school students from Shandong two high school with questionnaires.Firstly,we analyzed the basic situation of high school students’ gratitude and emotional regulation self-efficacy and mental health,the results indicated that(1)The total score of gratitude and emotional regulation self-efficacy was slightly higher than the theoretical value,and the total mental health of high school students was in a mild range(2-2.99);(2)The total score of girls’ gratitude was significantly higher than that of male students;The total score of gratitude of students whose father has received high education was significantly lower than that of students whose father has received lower education;(3)The score of the only child’s emotional regulation self-efficacy was significantly higher than that of the non-only child,the total score of Grade one high students’ emotional regulation self-efficacy was significantly higher than that of Grade two high students;The total score of emotional regulation self-efficacy of students whose father has received high education was significantly higher than that of students whose father has received lower education;The total score of emotional regulation self-efficacy of students whose mother has received high education was significantly higher than that of students whose mother has received lower education;(4)Girls’ mental health was significantly lower than that of boys.The total score of mental health of students whose father has received high education was significantly lower than that of students whose father has received lower education;The total score of mental health of students whose mother has received high education was significantlylower than that of students whose mother has received lower education.Next study mainly discussed the relationship among the three,and examined the mediating effect of emotional regulation self-efficacy,the results indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between the score of gratitude and emotional regulation self-efficacy of high school students.There was a significant negative correlation between the score of high school students’ emotional regulation self-efficacy and mental health level.There was a significant negative correlation between the score of gratitude and mental health in high school students.Gratitude negatively predicted mental health and positively predicted emotional regulation self-efficacy.Emotional regulation self-efficacy negatively predicted mental health,besides gratitude had a significant indirect effect on mental health through emotional regulation self-efficacy.Finally,study adopted the form of group counseling,formulating the emotional regulation self-efficacy program to intervene 24 high school students.The results showed that the total score of emotional regulation self-efficacy of the students in the experimental group was significantly increased,and there was a significant decline in mental health.Accordingly,the conclusions of this study were as follows:(1)The whole gratitude level and emotional regulation self-efficacy of high school students were in good condition and were at medium level.There are minor mental health problems in high school students.The differences in demographic variables are as follows:Girls’ gratitude and mental health were significantly better than boys’.The emotional regulation self-efficacy of the only child was significantly better than that of the non-only child.The emotional regulation self-efficacy of senior two students was significantly better than that of senior one students.The emotional regulation self-efficacy of the students whose mother is a college degree are significantly higher than those whose mother is a junior high school student.The less educated the mother,the worse her child’s mental health is.The more educated a father is,the less grateful his child is.The emotional regulation self-efficacy of the students whose father is a college degree are significantly higher than those whose father is a junior high school student.The less educated the father,the worse his child’s mental health is.(2)High school students’ emotional regulation self-efficacy played a role of partial mediation between gratitude and mental health.(3)The intervention activities of high school students’ emotional regulation self-efficacy were effective and the level of emotional regulation self-efficacy and mental health were significantly improved.