A Comparison of Emotion Regulation Strategies of Blind Students With Sighted Students

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to compare the emotion regulation strategies of blind and sighted students.  Methods: The research method used was descriptive and causal-comparative, and the statistical population included all the sighted and blind students at the University of Isfahan and the Islamic Azad University of Khorasgan. The sample volume was 64 members (32 members in each group). Sampling was conducted using the availability sampling method for the first group and the simple random sampling method for the second group. Data was gathered and measured with the help of the Emotion Regulation Scale by O.P. John and J.J. Gross, and analyzed using SPSS 21 and the ANOVA test. Results: The results indicated a significant difference between two groups with regard to applied emotion regulation strategies (P<0.05); Blind students applied both strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) less. The effect of gender, interaction between gender and vision status was also not significant with respect to emotion regulation (P>0.05).  Discussion: Emotion regulation is a possible influential factor in many problems that blind people suffer from, more than sighted ones, and using interventions that target emotion regulation strategies would be useful.