Wellbeing and mental health in Chilean public-school students: emotion regulation and character strengths

Introduction – This study examined the associations between emotion regulation, character strengths, and wellbeing among Chilean students attending public schools in Peñalolén, Santiago. Methods – Participants were 3, 569 children and adolescents aged 8–18 years who completed the EPOCH Well-being Scale, selected item-level indicators of the CERQ-K (younger students) or DERS-E (older students), and 15 items from the VIA Character Strengths Inventory. Five hierarchical regression models were estimated for each EPOCH domain, separately by age group. Results – Adaptive emotion regulation strategies predicted higher happiness, optimism, and perseverance among younger students, whereas emotional difficulties predicted lower wellbeing among older students. Adding character strengths significantly increased explained variance, particularly for perseverance and optimism. Love of learning, hope, self-regulation, enthusiasm, love, and teamwork consistently predicted wellbeing. Discussion – Findings support the integration of emotion regulation and strengths-based education to promote student wellbeing in Latin American school settings.