Abstract:
The current research was carried out to explore the use of expressive suppression in
regulating academic stress experienced by College of Arts and Sciences students from the
University of the Philippines Manila. A Sequential Explanatory study was applied and 277
students from 10 programs enrolled during the Second Semester of School Year 2018-2019 were
chosen through purposive sampling. Quantitative data were collected by validated survey
questionnaires, consisting of three sections: adapted and modified Survey of College Academic
Stressors (Calaguas, 2012), expressive suppression of academic stress, and factors that influence
participants‟ use of expressive suppression such as socio-demographic characteristics, display
rule perceptions and adherence to Asian cultural values. Eight (8) respondents who have a high
level of academic stress with mild or severe use of the said emotion regulation strategy were
chosen as key informants.
In total, 86.6% of students were reported to experience a moderate level of academic
stress. However, 68.6% of the respondents were highly stressed regarding expectations to
perform well in academics. Results also showed that 257 (92.78%) participants were using
expressive suppression and 24 (9.3%) students are using this emotion regulation strategy
severely. Factors influencing use of expressive suppression include personality, social
perception, social consequences, and cultural expectations.
