Emotional dysregulation in health, education and law enforcement professionals

Abstract

Introduction: emotional regulation is a key process for psychological and occupational well-being. Difficulties in adaptive emotional regulation—referred to as emotional dysregulation—are associated with psychological distress and reduced ability to adjust to challenging environments. Health, education, and law enforcement professionals face constant emotional demands in complex and uncertain contexts, which may compromise their well-being, responsiveness, decision-making, and job performance. Objective: to analyze differences in emotional dysregulation among 419 professionals from the health, education, and security sectors in the city of Río Cuarto, Argentina. Method: a quantitative, cross-sectional, and ex post facto study was conducted. The sample included 419 active professionals: 166 from health, 160 from education, and 93 from security sectors, selected through non-probabilistic convenience and snowball sampling. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), adapted to the Argentine population, was used. Statistical analyses included Kruskal-Wallis and Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner post hoc tests. Results: significant differences were found in emotional awareness (χ² = 9,97, p = 0,01) and emotional clarity (χ² = 7,02, p = 0,03), with educators reporting greater difficulties compared to health and security professionals. No significant gender differences were observed. Conclusions: the findings underscore the need for targeted interventions in emotional regulation, particularly within the education sector, where these difficulties are associated with burnout and work overload. Future research should consider longitudinal and mixed-method approaches, integrating variables such as personality traits and job satisfaction to enhance contextualized interventions.