Relationship between Experience Avoidance and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation with Suicidal Ideation: Mediating Role of Interpersonal Difficulties

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the mediating role of interpersonal difficulties in the relationship between experiential avoidance and difficulties in emotion regulation with suicidal ideation. The research method was descriptive-correlative and based on the purpose, practice and statistical population of this study, which included all citizens of Karaj in the fall of 2019 with a total of 124688 people selected by them using a two-stage random sampling method with reference to Karaj urban area, districts 3 and 7 in the first stage and the second stage two Hamoon Boostan in district 3 and Nabovvat Boostan in district 7 and finally 270 people (125 men, 143 women and 2 unknowns). The study instruments included the Emotion Regulation Difficulty Scale by Gratz & Roemer (2004) (ERDS); the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire by Gámez, Chmielewski, Kotov, Ruggero & Watson (2011) (MEAQ); the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-47 by Pilkonis, Kim, Proietti & Barkham (1996) (IIP) and the Suicide Cognitions Scale by Rudd et al. (2010) (SCS). Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. In the present study, the indirect path coefficient between experience avoidance and suicidal ideation (β=0.066, P=0.003) and difficulty in emotion regulation and suicidal ideation (β=0.086, P=0.006) was positive and significant at the 0.01 level. Overall, the present study showed that interpersonal difficulties mediated the association between experience avoidance and difficulties in emotion regulation with suicidal ideation.

Keywords

• experience avoidance
• emotion regulation
• suicide
• interpersonal difficulties