Emotional Regulation Difficulties Among Faculty Members: Investigating the Effect of Gender, Teaching Experience, Academic Certificate

Abstract

The current study investigated the effect of gender, teaching experience, academic certificate, and specialization on emotional regulation difficulties. Participants were 172 faculty members at three private universities in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS) was applied. The study showed that female faculty members had more limited access to emotion regulation strategies than their male counterparts did. The results also showed that experienced faculty members were more likely to accept emotional responses, but have difficulties with goal-directed activity, impulse control, and lack of emotional awareness. The findings suggest that effective use of emotion regulation strategies is affected by gender, moderate teaching experience affects faculty members’ impulse control, emotional responses acceptance, and goal-directed activity, and doctorate holders from different specializations are more aware of their emotions.