Negative Life Events And Post-Stress Growth In Middle School Students:Mediating And Moderating Effects Of Cognitive Emotion Regulation And Friendship Quality

Middle school students are inevitably faced with academic pressure,interpersonal tension,family conflict and other negative life events.Adolescence is a key stage for individual physical and mental development and excessive conflict resolution.For cognitively immature individuals,life pressure and other negative life events may lead to psychological problems.Protective factors play an important role in growth after negative life events and stress.Adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies help individuals actively adapt to internal and external environment changes and adjust negative emotional responses from the cognitive level.High level of friendship quality promotes individuals to obtain strong interpersonal relationships and healthy psychology.Based on the perspective of positive psychology,this study attempts to explore the possible post-stress growth of students after experiencing negative life events,explore the internal mechanism of the impact of negative life events on post-stress growth of middle school students,and test whether there is a mediating and moderating effect between cognitive emotion regulation and friendship quality.Using stratified cluster sampling method,1503 middle and high school students were anonymously surveyed by self-rated life scale for adolescents,Post-stress Growth Scale for children,Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale and friendship quality questionnaire.SPSS25.0 and Mplus8.0 were used to make statistical analysis of the data,and the results were as follows:(1)the negative life events of middle school students were in the lower middle level,and the total scores and dimensions had significant differences in grade,place of origin and mother’s education level;(2)The overall growth after stress is above the average level,and the total score and each dimension have significant differences in grade,family atmosphere,class achievement ranking in the past year,family economic status,and the number of close friends;(3)The overall cognitive emotion regulation was above the average level,the total score and all dimensions were significantly different in grades,and the adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies were significantly different in the mother’s educational level;(4)Negative life events significantly predicted post-stress growth of middle school students;(5)Cognitive emotion regulation(adaptive and non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies)partially mediates the relationship between negative life events and post-stress growth in middle school students;(6)The friendship quality of middle school students regulates the first half of the mediating effects of negative life events,adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and post-stress growth,and also regulates the direct path of negative life events and post-stress growth.The conclusions are as follows:(1)Academic stress and interpersonal stress are the main sources of life events for middle school students,and excessive negative life events will hinder the growth of individuals after stress;(2)Adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies are conducive to positive changes after negative life events and promote post-stress growth;(3)With the increase of friendship quality,the negative impact of negative life events on post-stress growth decreased,the positive impact increased,and the negative effect of negative life events on adaptive emotional regulation strategies decreased.In conclusion,cognitive emotion regulation is the mediating variable between negative life events and post-stress growth,and friendship quality plays a moderating role in this mediating effect.