فصلنامه روانشناسی کاربردی (Mar 2017)
Mediating role of interpersonal problems in the relationship between experiential avoidance with depression and anxiety
Abstract
Aim: Study aim was to determine the mediating role of interpersonal problems in the relationship between experiential avoidance with depression and anxiety. Method: Method was correlation and statistical population consisted of all male and female residents of City of Karaj in seven region with the quantity of 124688 in 2016. Sample size of 300 volunteers was determined based on Guadagnoli & Velicer (1998) method. Participants were approached in three parks, chosen at random from a list of public parks in Karaj. These were volunteers and informed consent was obtained from each participant. The tools used in the present study consisted of the following questionnaires: The multidimensional experiential avoidance questionnaire (Gámez, Chmielewski, Kotov, Ruggero & Watson, 2011), the interpersonal difficulties scale-47 (Pilkonis, Kim, Proietti & Barkham, 1996), Beck’s depression scale (Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996) and Beck’s anxiety scale (Beck, Epstein, Brown & Steer, 1988). After 50 questionnaires were excluded of the research process because of distortion, the Mahalanobis distance method showed that none of the subjects in this study were outliers, so structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data of 250 subjects. Results: Indirect path coefficients between behavioral avoidance (β=0.151, P=0.016), distraction/ suppression (β=0.151, P=0.021), distress aversion (β=0.270, P=0.001), distress endurance (β=0.161, P=0.005) components with depression and anxiety were significant. Conclusion: Interpersonal difficulty arises from strategy avoidance of some thoughts, memories and activities that is followed by depression and anxiety in the long term. On the other hand, interpersonal problems may affect response to treatment in people with depression and anxiety. Therefore as far as primary prevention training is concerned, it is essential to teach parents and educators how to deal with experiential avoidance in different stages of development.
