Optimism and satisfaction of life: the role of self-efficacy and emotional regulation strategies

The present study aims at providing a general view about the relationships between personal style (optimistic vs pessimistic), self-efficacy in managing negative emotions, strategy used to regulate emotions and satisfaction with life, variables so far considered separately in literature. A sample of 63 university students was administered the Life Orientation Test, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Perceived Self-efficacy in Regulation of Negative Emotions and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that optimistic personal style, life satisfaction and self-efficacy in managing negative emotions are all positive correlated. It turned out that personal style plays an important role in this pattern of correlations, since optimistic people seem to use mainly reappraisal, have higher levels self-efficacy in managing negative emotions and have a high level of satisfaction with life.