Emotional Regulation and its Relationship with Digital Stress among University Students

University education is witnessing a widespread integration of technology into students' lives, which has provided significant opportunities for learning but, at the same time, generated new challenges highlighted by digital stress resulting from the excessive use of smart devices and the accompanying fatigue, anxiety, and poor concentration. This variable is considered important as it directly affects the other variable, emotional regulation, which represents a fundamental indicator of the student's competence and educational effectiveness. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the nature of the relationship between emotional regulation and digital stress among university students, contributing to providing recommendations that assist in the balanced use of technology and the enhancement of mental health and academic performance. Thus, the current research aims to identify: First: The degree of emotional regulation among university students. Second: The degree of digital stress among university students. Third: The relationship between emotional regulation and digital stress among university students. Fourth: The differences in the relationship between emotional regulation and digital stress among university students according to the variables of gender (male - female) and specialization (scientific - humanities). The research is limited to undergraduate students at Sumer University from both genders (males, females) and specializations (scientific, humanities) for the academic year (2025/2026). To achieve the research objectives, the researcher used the descriptive correlational approach to explore emotional regulation and its relationship with digital stress. The researcher adopted the Emotional Regulation Scale for university students prepared by (Al-Waeli, 2019) based on the model of (Gross, 2003), which consisted of (28) items in its final form, distributed across two domains: (Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression). The researcher also adopted the Digital Stress Scale prepared by (Steele et al., 2021). After verifying the translation validity procedures, the scale consisted of (24) items distributed across five domains: (Availability Stress, Approval Anxiety, Fear of Missing Out, Connection Overload, and Online Vigilance). After verifying the validity of the items for both scales, they were applied to the statistical analysis sample to extract their psychometric properties and statistically analyze their items. To analyze the data of the current research, the researcher used a set of appropriate statistical methods, including (One-Sample t-test, Independent Samples t-test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Cronbach's Alpha, Z-test, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis). The researcher reached the following results: University students possess a high level of emotional regulation. Digital stress among university students is low. There is an inverse relationship between emotional regulation and digital stress. There are no significant differences in the correlational relationship between the research variables (emotional regulation and digital stress) attributed to the demographic variables of gender (males - females) and specialization (scientific, humanities). Based on the results of the current research, the researcher put forward a number of recommendations and suggestions, which will be mentioned in the fourth chapter.