Difficulty in emotion regulation

Introduction: Academic achievement is one of the main concerns of the educational system of any country, and as a result, any factor that is effective in reducing or increasing its quantity and quality is considered and emphasized by researchers. Psychological damage and stressful accidents have effects on academic achievement. This study aimed to develop a model of structural equations for academic achievement of students with post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) (Kermanshah earthquake) based on cognitive ability; moreover, it was attempted to investigate the mediating role of difficulty in emotion regulation in this regard. Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was conducted based on a quantitative and applied research method. The statistical population of the present study includes all students with PSTD in Sarpol Zahab, Kermanshah Province, Iran, in the academic year of 2018-19. In total, 48 cases were selected using the available sampling method. The data were collected using the Capita’s Log software, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and final grades of Persian literature and mathematics courses. Data analysis was performed employing the structural equation modeling (SEM) and Smart PLS software. Findings: The results of this study in the form of a structural model showed that all t-coefficients among the three main constructs were higher than 1.96, which indicates the existence of significant relationships among research variables. In other words, cognitive ability has a direct and significant relationship with the academic achievement of students with PSTD. Moreover, there is a negative relationship between cognitive ability and difficulty in emotion regulation. Conclusion: The results of the present study revealed the direct and significant effect of cognitive ability on the academic achievement of students with PSTD. In addition, an indirect effect of cognitive ability was observed on the academic achievement of these students with a mediating role of difficulty in emotion regulation. The findings of the present study indicate that the improvement of the cognitive ability, as well as the enhancement of the skills related to emotion regulation in students with PSTD, leads to improved academic achievement.

Objective: Psychological factors play a decisive role in the occurrence and experience of pain disorders. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy on alexithymia and difficulty in emotion regulation in patients with pain disorder. Method : The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population of the study included all women who were referred to Manoushan and Behsa counseling centers in Tehran with psychosomatic problems and pain. Sixty people from this population were selected and randomly divided into three groups (20 people in each group). Research instruments included the Toronto Emotional Dysfunction Scale (Bugby et al., 1994) and the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) (Gertz & Roemer, 2004). One group received 12 one-hour sessions of emotion-focused therapy, and another group received 10 one-hour sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy. However, the control group did not receive any intervention during the study. In addition to descriptive statistics, mixed variance analysis and Ben Foroni post hoc test were used to analyze the research data.   Results : The results for alexithymia showed that the emotionally focused therapy group had a significantly lower mean than the cognitive behavioral group (P= 0.02) and the control group (P 0.001), and the cognitive-behavioral group had a significantly higher mean compared to the control group (P = 0.001). Also, the results for the difficulty in emotion regulation showed that the emotionally focused group and the cognitive-behavioral group have significantly lower means compared to the control group (P = 0.001). Conclusions : The results of the present study, in addition to confirming the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy, indicated that emotion-focused therapy is a more effective treatment for alexithymia. As a result, emotion-focused therapy can be considered an effective treatment that can be used by health professionals to treat pain disorders.

The present study aimed to determine the fit of the predictive model of suicidal ideation based on early maladaptive schemas mediated by difficulty in emotion regulation in teachers. This study is an applied study in terms of its purpose and a descriptive correlational study in terms of its method, which was conducted using structural equation modeling. The statistical population consists of all teachers working in schools in Tehran during the spring of 2025, from which 320 people were selected using the available sampling method. The research instruments included the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (1979); the Emotion Regulation Difficulties Scale by Gratz & Roemer (2004) and the Young Schema Questionnaire-short form (1998). Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that the predictive model of suicidal ideation based on early maladaptive schemas mediated by difficulty in emotion regulation in teachers fits the collected data. Suicidal ideation is predicted based on early maladaptive schemas in teachers (P=0.001, β=0.400). Suicidal ideation is predicted based on difficulty in emotion regulation in teachers (P=0.001, β=0.378).