The Mediating Effect of Self-Encouragement and Emotional Regulation Ability in the Relationship between Parental Empathy and School Life Adaptation Perceived by Middle School Students

The purpose of this study is to increase school life adaptation by confirming the mediating effects of self-encouragement and emotional regulation ability in middle school students' parental empathy and school life adaptation. To this end, 233 middle school students in Busan and Gyeongnam were surveyed, and the data were analyzed with SPSS Ver 27.0. Correlation analysis between variables was conducted, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to verify the mediating effects of self-encouragement and emotional regulation ability, and significance was verified by the method of bootstrapping. The results of the study are as follows. First, there was a positive correlation between parental empathy, self-encouragement, emotional regulation ability, and school life adaptation perceived by middle school students. Second, there was a complete mediating effect on self-encouragement and emotional regulation ability in middle school students' parental empathy and school life adaptation, and emotional regulation ability had a partial mediating effect. These results suggest the importance of self-encouragement and emotional regulation ability that influence middle school students' adaptation to school life through parental empathy.