Abstract

Experiencing negative emotions and difficulties in regulating them can lead to the development of somatic symptoms. High dispositional emotional reactivity to negative emotions and challenges in emotion regulation are linked to the onset of somatic symptoms. This study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying somatic symptoms through the lens of emotion regulation processes such as emotional reactivity and emotional dysregulation. It further explored the roles of emotion suppression as an exacerbating factor and self-compassion as an alleviating factor in these processes. A total of 290 cyber university students participated in the online survey. The questionnaire encompassed the Emotional Experience Questionnaire, Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Attitude Toward Emotional Expression Scale, Trait Self-Compassion Scale, and the Somatization Symptoms Scale from the Symptom Checklist-90-Revision. The findings revealed a significant mediating effect of emotional reactivity and emotional dysregulation sequentially between negative emotions and somatic symptoms. Subsequent analyses assessed emotion suppression and self-compassion as moderating variables in the established sequential mediation model. In each case, emotion suppression was found to exacerbate the pathological effects of emotional reactivity and emotional dysregulation on somatic symptoms, while self-compassion mitigated these effects. The study discusses the clinical implications of the moderated mediating effects of emotion suppression and self-compassion and outlines limitations and directions for future research.