Emotion regulation strategies as mediators between resilience to helplessness-depression and flourishing among Syrian refugees in Istanbul – Turkey

Previous studies reported that mental health and emotion regulation strategies deteriorated in the refugee sample. The main goal of the study was to analyze the mediation effect of emotion regulation strategies as expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal between resilience to helplessness – depression and flourishing. The second aim was to determine to what extent emotion regulation strategies and resilience to helplessness-depression predicted flourishing. Forty-seven Syrian refugees, aged 18-64, who were settled in Istanbul fulfilled the coping competence questionnaire (CCQ), the flourishing scale, and the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ). The serial mediation analysis indicated that expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal had a significant indirect mediating effect between resilience to helplessness-depression and flourishing. Multiple regression analysis showed that expressive suppression was a negative predictor of flourishing. However, both cognitive reappraisal and resilience to helplessness – depression were positive predictors of flourishing. Moreover, ERQ, flourishing, and CCQ scales showed good internal reliability consistency scores in the refugee group. The study suggested that improvement in emotion regulation strategies may be a helpful strategy in the therapeutic setting.