The effect of romantic relationships on university students’ mental health: evaluating the mediating role of emotion regulation

Higher education students are a vulnerable group with respect to mental health issues, and healthy romantic relationships have shown to be a key influencing factor; however, the mechanisms are not fully understood. This study used a multi-method design to investigate the proposed mediating mechanisms of intra- and inter-personal emotion-regulation strategies. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and questionnaires, completed by 259 students (124 single, 135 in a relationship), were used to capture both trait emotion regulation tendencies and strategy utilisation on a day-to-day basis. Data were analysed using path mediation in a structural equation model. Results suggested some significant effects of emotion-regulation strategies on depression, anxiety and stress, but with conflicting findings across methods. Findings suggest that fostering positive emotion-regulation strategies among students could be a relevant intervention target for supporting their mental health. Understanding variations in findings across methods, emotion regulation strategies, and mental health outcomes deserves further research attention.Keywords: mental health, students, romantic relationships