Mediating Role of Socio-Emotional Competence and Self-Efficacy in the Relationship between Emotion Regulation Style and Academic Engagement in Students

This research investigated the mediating role of socio-emotional competencies and self-efficacy in the relationship between emotion regulation and student academic engagement. The research method was descriptive-correlational, and the statistical population included all female secondary school students in District 4 of Karaj city during the academic year 2024-2025. The final sample size was 320 individuals, selected through random cluster sampling. Data collection was conducted using the Academic Engagement Questionnaire by Fredricks et al. (2004), the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire by Morris (2001), the Emotion Regulation Style Questionnaire by Hofmann and Kashdan (2010), and the Socio-Emotional Competence Questionnaire by Zhou and Ee (2012). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analysis using AMOS software. The results demonstrated a good fit for the research model. Specifically, all direct and indirect paths in the model were significant, except for the direct path from the covert emotion regulation style to academic engagement. Both adaptive and covert emotion regulation styles predicted academic engagement through the mediation of socio-emotional competence and self-efficacy. These findings suggest that the adaptive emotion regulation style, as an effective approach, enhances socio-emotional competence, which in turn boosts students' self-efficacy beliefs, ultimately leading to increased academic engagement. Conversely, the covert emotion regulation style, as an ineffective approach, exhibits a negative and inverse relationship with these variables.