Passion for Studying and Emotions

Abstract

Background: Passion for studying and emotion regulation characteristics are important factors for students’ academic functioning. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between passion for studying and emotion regulation, and to identify and describe students’ functioning profiles by establishing which patterns of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP), as well as emotion regulation characteristics might characterize these profiles. Methods: The study involved 272 students, who completed measures of passion and emotional variables. Conclusions: The results showed that HP was positively related to more adaptive emotion regulation strategies, whereas OP was positively associated with less adaptive ones. Three profiles were distinguished: (1) with the lowest HP scores and high OP ones obtaining the least adaptive emotion regulation characteristics (with a prevalence of 35% in students), (2) with the highest HP and high OP scores possessing average emotion regulation characteristics with a predominance of adaptive strategies over maladaptive ones (52%), and (3) with average HP scores and the lowest OP ones having the most adaptive emotion regulation characteristics (13%). Our results suggest that emotional variables (especially negative reactivity, actively approaching, ignoring, and cognitive reappraisal) and HP play the most important role in differentiating students’ functioning.