Associations Between Parental Psychological Control and COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Negative Emotions: The Role of Resilience and Emotion Regulation

Abstract

Studies focusing on risk factors for negative emotions related to the COVID-19 pandemic remain limited. We examined the underlying mechanism of resilience and emotion regulation on the association between parental psychological control and COVID-19 pandemic-related negative emotions. A total of 400 Chinese college students (207 males; Mage = 19.78 ± 1.72 years) completed a cross-sectional survey including Parental Psychological Control Scale, Profile of Mood States Scale, Brief Resilience Scale, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire during the pandemic. Using PROCESS macro, results indicated that resilience partially mediated the association between parental psychological control and COVID-19 pandemic-related negative emotions. Expressive suppression, but not cognitive reappraisal, moderated the mediating path. Specifically, parental psychological control was a stronger predictor of resilience among those who rarely used expressive suppression. Correcting maladaptive parenting would be beneficial for college students' mental health during COVID-19 as well as for the improvement of coping capacity and adaptation outcomes to stress.