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Emotional Regulation 
Report on the Study of Social and Emotional Skills of 

Chinese Adolescents (II) 

Zhi Liu, Ruirui Zhu, Haili Cui, & Jingzhong Huang 

East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China 

ECENTLY, an article published in the Journal of East China Normal 

University (Education Sciences) was based on the data of 10-year-old 

and 15-year-old students in Suzhou City, China participating in the 

OECD social and emotional ability assessment. The study used descriptive 

statistics, difference testing, regression analysis, and other statistical methods 

to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the emotional regulation perfor-

mance of Suzhou students. 

Emotion regulation is an important part of one’s social and emotional 

ability. In the OECD’s research on social and emotional ability, based on the 

theory of the “Big Five Personalities”, the connotation of emotional regula-

tion is defined as whether a person can manage emotional well, effectively 

adjust negative emotions and cope with pressure, as well as maintain a posi-

tive and optimistic attitude towards one’s personal life and social career de-

velopment. In view of the emotional adjustment methods of adolescents and 

the characteristics that they cannot accurately observe and express, the emo-

tional adjustment dimensions of the OECD Social and Emotional Ability As-

sessment measure stress resistance, optimism, and emotion control. One car-

ries out the three-demonstration analysis based on the performance of the 

item’s ability. The emotional state will have an important impact on one’s 

study, work, and personal life. A large number of empirical studies indicate 

that emotional regulation is closely related to health and well-being, but es-

pecially overall physical and mental health. The OECD pointed out in its re- 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

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BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1204 

search report that emotion regulation is of great significance to the life de-

velopment of children and adolescents and is closely related to many life 

outcome variables (such as educational expectations, test anxiety, life satis-

faction, happiness, health, etc.). With the increasing uncertainty of current 

social development, students must face many sudden changes in learning, 

living environment, and interpersonal relationships. In this case, regulating 

emotions is particularly important for students. When cannot adapt and ad-

just, anxiety, depression, pessimism, and other emotions may result. There-

fore, it is extremely important and urgent to teach young students to regulate 

and manage emotions well. 

The sampling of the OECD Youth Social and Emotional Ability Re-

search is systematically conducted from all eligible schools and students in 

the participating cities, specifically to all primary and secondary schools in 

the 6 districts and 4 county-level cities under the jurisdiction of Suzhou City. 

The study uses a stratified two-stage cluster sampling method. The 10-year-

old group and the 15-year-old group constituted 3,800 and 3,750 subjects, re-

spectively, with the total sample size being 7,550. The research results are 

divided into three parts, including overall condition, analysis on predictive 

variables of emotion regulation, and variables of emotion regulation and life 

outcome. The analysis shows differences in the students’ abilities to resist 

stress, their optimism, and emotional control according to age, gender, urban 

and rural areas, and school categories. There is a correlation among the 15 

abilities of the “Big Five Personalities” model, which one can analyze from 

multiple levels through regression analysis. One may also explore the predic-

tive variables of students’ emotion regulation and the influence of emotion 

regulation on the five major life outcome variables. The details are as follows: 

The Overall Situation of Emotional Regulation 

The overall performance of Suzhou students in emotional regulation reveals 

the scores of various sub-abilities of emotional regulation, the correlation be-

tween emotional regulation and other sub-abilities, and the differences in age, 

gender, urban and rural areas, and school types of emotional regulation. The 

study found that among 10-year-old students, anti-stress, optimism, and emo-

tional control were significantly related to other abilities (p < 0.01). Opti-

mism and emotional control were at a medium-to-high level, with an impact 

coefficient of 0.60. Anti-stress and optimism were at a medium-to-high level. 

The level-related influence coefficient was 0.57, and emotional control and 

anti-stress were also related to the middle and high levels, with an influence 

coefficient of 0.57. Anti-stress, optimism, and emotional control were signif-

icantly related to other abilities (p < 0.01) among students in the 15-year-old 

group. Optimism and emotional control were related to a medium-to-high 

level, with an impact coefficient of 0.62. Anti-stress and optimism were re-

lated to a medium-to-high level. The influence coefficient was 0.60. Emo-

tional control and anti-stress were also related to the middle to high level, 

and the influence coefficient was 0.57. 



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1205 

There were also significant differences in the score performance of var-

ious sub-abilities of emotion regulation in age, gender, urban and rural areas; 

the differences between general high school and vocational high school were 

insignificant. There is a substantial difference between the age-based tripar-

tite evaluations of students, parents, and teachers. The evaluations of the 10-

year-old group by students and teachers are 0.08-66 points higher than those 

of the 15-year-old group, while the parents’ evaluations of the 10-year-old 

group are lower than 15 11-23 points in the age group. With the increase of 

age, the difference in the ability of male and female students in the dimen-

sion of emotion regulation will change. In the lower age group, there is little 

difference between boys and girls, but in the higher age group, boys have 

better emotional regulation ability than girls. Students in the central city indi-

cate better emotional regulation than that of the rural students. The urban-

rural differences in the three abilities of anti-stress, optimism, and emotion 

control in the 10-year-old group are statistically significantly different from 0 

(p < 0.01), indicating the central city students’ emotional regulation is signif-

icantly higher than in rural areas. The 15-year-old students have relatively 

small differences in the mean of these 3 abilities, and there is no statistically 

significant difference. 

Analysis of Predictors of Emotion Regulation 

It is necessary to use multiple regression to analyze the factors that affect 

emotional regulation development, including background variables, student 

variables, teacher variables, school variables, and family variables. 

Regarding the background variables, in the 10-year-old group of stu-

dents, the two variables of family possessions and the number of family 

books have stable and significant positive effects on the three emotional reg-

ulation abilities. The P values are all less than 0.01, and the coefficients re-

spectively are 0.24. 0.09. In the 10-year-old group of students, the three vari-

ables of parents’ highest education, family possessions, and family book col-

lection have stable and significant positive effects on the three abilities of 

emotional regulation. The P values are all less than 0.01, and the coefficients 

are 0.01, 0.17, 0.01, respectively. 

Regarding student variables, in general, whether it is a 10-year-old or a 

15-year-old student, the six variables of security, friendship, good habits of 

friends, friendliness of classmates, outdoor activity time and growth-oriented 

thinking are all related to emotional regulation. The item ability has a signifi-

cant and stable positive impact (p < 0.01), and a wide range of social rela-

tionships negatively impacts the 10-year-old group of students (p < 0.01) and 

positively impacts the 15-year-old group of students (p < 0.01). 

Regarding teacher variables, for the 10-year-old group of students, the 

two variables of teacher-student relationship and teaching age have stable 

and significant positive effects on the three abilities of emotional regulation 

dimensions (p < 0.01), with coefficients around 0.18 and 0.05. For the 15-

year-old students, the three abilities of the teacher-student relationship in the 



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1206 

emotional regulation dimension have stable and significant positive effects (p 

< 0.01), with a coefficient of about 0.16. Whether it is a 10-year-old or a 15-

year-old student, the teacher-student relationship can have a stable and sig-

nificant positive impact on the three abilities of stress, optimism and emo-

tional control. In addition, for the 10-year-old group of students, the teacher’s 

high expectations have a negative impact on students’ emotional regulation 

(p < 0.01), but for the 15-year-old group, similar effects are not obvious (p = 

0.01). 

Regarding school variables, for the 10-year-old group of students, the 

three variables of school belonging, school cooperation atmosphere, and ex-

tra-school activities have stable and significant positive effects on the three 

abilities of emotion regulation (p < 0.01), with 0.32, 0.15, and 0.09 coeffi-

cients, respectively. For 15-year-old students, similar to 10-year-old students, 

the three variables of school belonging, school cooperation atmosphere, and 

extra-school activities have stable and significant positive effects on the three 

abilities of 15-year-old students in the emotional regulation dimension (p < 

0.01), with coefficients of 0.40, 0.05, and 0.09, respectively. 

Regarding family variables for the 10-year-old group of students, the 

three variables of understanding fathers, understanding mothers, and parents’ 

high expectations have stable and significant positive effects on the three 

emotional regulation abilities (p < 0.01) with coefficients of 0.14, 0.11, and 

0.06, respectively. Parent-child problems and punitive fathers have a signifi-

cant negative impact on the three abilities (p < 0.01), and the coefficients are 

0.17 and 0.00, respectively. This shows that the discordant parent-child rela-

tionship and strict fathers hinder students’ emotional regulation abilities. For 

the 15-year-old group of students, the three variables of understanding fa-

thers, punitive fathers, and parents’ high expectations have stable and signifi-

cant positive effects on the three abilities of emotional regulation dimensions 

(p < 0.01), with coefficients of 0.11, 0.05, and 0.07, respectively. The differ-

ence in the 10-year-old group is that the strictness of the father’s discipline 

positively correlated to a child’s ability to regulate emotions. The degree of 

influence of understanding parents is generally higher than that of punitive 

parents, and for 15-year-old students, the influence of fathers is greater than 

that of mothers. Moreover, punitive mothers have a negative influence on 

children’s emotional regulation. In addition, consistent with the 10-year-old 

group, the parent-child problem also has a significant negative impact on the 

three abilities (p < 0.01), with a coefficient of about 0.23. 

Emotion Regulation and Life Outcomes 

From the perspective of academic performance and educational expectations, 

for the 10-year-old group of students, the optimism of emotional regulation 

and emotional control has a stable and positive impact on students’ perfor-

mance in Chinese, Mathematics, and Art p < 0.01). In contrast, the influence 

of optimism is greater (coefficients are 0.06, 0.06, 0.05, respectively). Com-

pared with students in the 15-year-old group, optimism and emotional con-



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1207 

trol have different effects on the performance of each subject and their edu-

cational expectations. From the perspective of global awareness, whether it is 

a 10-year-old, or a 15-year-old student, anti-stress, optimism, and emotional 

control have a positive and significant impact on their global awareness (p < 

0.01). This indicates that improving anti-stress, optimism, and emotional 

control could increase the global awareness of students of different age 

groups. From the perspective of health, whether it is a 10-year-old or a 15-

year-old student, the emotional regulation ability has a significant positive 

impact on one’s health status (p < 0.01), indicating that one’s optimism, abil-

ity to resist stress and emotional control can enhance one’s health. From the 

perspective of quality of life, whether it is a 10-year-old or a 15-year-old stu-

dent, the ability to resist stress, optimism and emotional control has a signifi-

cant positive impact on happiness and satisfaction (p < 0.01), and a signifi-

cant negative for test anxiety influence (p < 0.01), that is, the better the emo-

tional regulation ability, the less test anxiety. From the perspective of social 

relations, the assessment of social and emotional abilities mainly includes 

variables such as being close to family members (parents) and close to others 

(companion relations). From the analysis results, in both groups, emotional 

regulation ability has a significant positive impact on close family members 

and others to whom one is close (p < 0.01), indicating that the ability to resist 

stress, optimism, and emotional control can be improved. These abilities can 

make students closer to family and others. 

Therefore, as an important dimension of social and emotional ability, 

emotion regulation is affected by different subjects and many variable factors. 

Under the current rapidly developing and changing social background, it be-

comes increasingly important for students to have strong emotional regula-

tion abilities. Accordingly, this study presents some research recommenda-

tions: In terms of concepts, we must attach great importance to cultivating 

students’ emotional regulation-related abilities; in implementation, we must 

master and use strategies and models for emotional regulation; all relevant 

subjects must clarify their own roles, explore effective paths, and form a joint 

force for educating people. We should also promote the improvement of stu-

dents’ emotional regulation levels. 

 

 

Source: Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), 2021, 39(09): 

47-46. 

 

Correspondence to:  

Jingzhong Huang 

East China Normal University 

Shanghai 200241, Jiangsu 
China 

Email: zjhuang@dedu.ecnu.edu.cn  

 
Conflict of Interests: None. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.21.rp032 

 

mailto:zjhuang@dedu.ecnu.edu.cn

