Abstract

• The main purpose of this study is to investigate resilience and emotion regulation among student teachers in education colleges. A mixed methods research design was used in this study. A total of 720 student teachers from six education colleges throughout Myanmar were selected by using stratified random sampling technique. In order to find out the resilience and emotion regulation of student teachers, Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) developed by Conner and Davidson (2003) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) developed by Gross and John (2003) were used as research instruments in this study. For qualitative study, data were collected by semi-structured interview. According to the quantitative results, there was no significant difference in student teachers’ resilience by gender. The results of t-test showed that student teachers from first year were more resilient than those from second year in this study. ANOVA result showed that there were significant differences in student teachers’ resilience with regard to colleges. However, no significant differences existed in cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression of student teachers by gender and education level. The result of Pearson’s correlation showed that there was a strong positive relationship between cognitive reappraisal and resilience. Moreover, multiple regression analysis pointed out that cognitive reappraisal was a significant positive predictor of resilience, but expressive suppression was not. Lastly, the qualitative study revealed that in addition to the use of cognitive reappraisal in regulating emotions, self-efficacy, good self-image, sense of purpose in life, optimism, sense of humor, and social support from family, peers, teachers and significant others are the crucial factors that should be taken into account on the resilience level of the student teachers.