نقش انعطاف‌پذیری روانشناختی بر اضطراب کرونا با میانجی‌گری تنظیم شناختی هیجان در دانشجویان

این پژوهش با هدف بررسی تاثیر انعطاف‌پذیری روانشناختی بر اضطراب کرونا با میانجی‌گری تنظیم شناختی هیجان در دانشجویان مقطع کارشناسی مرکز آموزش عالی پلدختر انجام شد. روش پژوهش، توصیفی از نوع همبستگی بود. نمونه شامل 230 نفر از دانشجویان مقطع کارشناسی مرکز آموزش عالی پلدختر در سال تحصیلی 400-1399 بود که براساس قاعده سرانگشتی کلاین و به روش نمونه‌گیری دردسترس انتخاب شدند. ابزارهای به‌کاررفته در این پژوهش، مقیاس اضطراب کرونا ویروس، سیاهه انعطاف‌پذیری شناختی و پرسش‌نامه تنظیم شناختی هیجان بود. تحلیل داده‌ها به روش آماری تحلیل مسیر، انجام و برای بررسی نقش واسطه‌ای متغیرها از آزمون بوت‌استراپ استفاده شد. یافته‌ها نشان دادند پس از حذف مسیر مستقیم از راهبردهای سازش‌یافته تنظیم هیجان به اضطراب کرونا، مدل علّی انعطاف‌پذیری روانشناختی به اضطراب کرونا دانشجویان ازطریق نقش واسطه‌ای راهبردهای سازش‌نایافته تنظیم هیجان تایید شد. به‌طور کلی، راهبرد سازش‌نایافته تنظیم هیجان نقش میانجی در رابطۀ بین انعطاف‌پذیری روانشناختی و اضطراب کرونا ایفا کرد؛ بنابراین، انجام‌دادن اقدامات مناسب برای کاهش راهبرد سازش‌نایافته تنظیم هیجان و افزایش انعطاف‌پذیری روانشناختی در دانشجویان پیشنهاد می‌شود.

the role of cognitive flexibility in corona anxiety in undergraduate students: the mediation of cognitive emotion regulation

the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cognitive flexibility on corona anxiety with mediation of cognitive emotion regulation among undergraduate students in poldokhtar higher education center, iran. the study used path analysis as its main analytical tool. the sample consisted of 230 undergraduate students of poldakhtar higher education center in the academic year of 2020-2021. they were selected based on the rules of thumb kline equal and were selected via available sampling method. the instruments used in this study were corona disease anxiety scale, cognitive flexibility inventory, and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. data analysis was performed using path analysis and bootstrapping method was used to examine the mediating role of the variables. the results showed that after eliminating the direct path from adapted strategies to corona anxiety, the causal model of cognitive flexibility to corona anxiety was confirmed through the mediating role of maladaptive strategies. in general, the maladaptive strategies played a mediating role in the relationship between psychological flexibility and corona anxiety. therefore, it is suggested practitioners to take appropriate measures to reduce the maladaptive emotion regulation strategy and increase psychological flexibility in students.introductionthe covid-19 pandemic has triggered several psychological reactions (cullen et al., 2020). in this regard, various studies have reported on the impact of covid-19 on mental health and how it causes higher levels of stress, depression, anxiety, increased suicide rates, substance abuse and domestic violence (holmes et al., 2020; serafini et al., 2020; thombs et al., 2020). some experts have called this a ‘tsunami of psychiatric diseases’ (tandon, 2020). regarding anxiety, some review studies and metanalyses have reported a prevalence from 23.2% to 31.9% (pappa et al., 2020; salari et al., 2020). despite the emphasis on social distance and personal hygiene and warnings about the covid-19, little attention has paid to its psychological aspects, which can affect adherence to self-care behaviors. therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the mediatory role of the cognitive emotion regulation in relationship between cognitive flexibility and corona anxiety.methodthe present study employed a descriptive-correlational study using causal relationship modeling methods. the population of this study included all undergraduate students single-gender poldokhtar higher education center (boys) in iran, who were studying during the academic year 2020-2021. the statistical sample size was determined based on the rules of thumb kline equal to 230 people, which was done by available sampling method and online questionnaire. due to the need to reduce social contact to prevent the spread of covid-19, the available sampling method and internet implementation were used. the questionnaire link was sent to users online on whatsapp social networks. the measurement tools involved corona disease anxiety scale (cdas), cognitive flexibility inventory (cfi), and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (cerq). the psychometric properties of all instruments were approved in the country of origin as well as in the iranian society. participants in the study were informed about the anonymity of data collection and analysis, were assured that all questionnaires would be collected for statistical analysis, and their information would remain confidential. whenever they did not want to continue, they could withdraw from the research study. the inclusion and selection criterion included being a student in poldakhtar higher education center, being willing to participate in research and being a cyberspace user. the criteria for exclusion of samples were the distortion of the questionnaires. data analysis was performed using path analysis by the spss version 22, and amos version 24. resultsall of the participants in were male. the mean of age was 23.82 (sd = 2.58). in addition, 230 participants included 29.1% of psychology field, 19.1% of accounting, 18.3% of english language, 15.2% of sports science, 13.9% of computer, and 4.3% agricultural engineering students.the mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis and correlation coefficients between the research variables are presented in table 1.  table 1the correlation matrix, mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis of research variablesvariables12341. cognitive flexibility1   2. maladaptive strategies-0.20**1  3. adapted strategies0.37**0.26**1 4. corona anxiety-0.36**0.29**0.041mean4.302.743.17-0.108standard deviation0.9650.6900.6870.449skewness0.4590.333-0.060.866kurtosis0.6341.910.376-0.83 table 2comparison of fitness indicators of the proposed and modified modelgoodness fit indexescmin/dfgfiagfiifitlicfinfirmseaacceptable values1-5>0.90>0.80>0.90>0.90>0.90>0.90<0.08initial proposed mode-1.00-1.00-1.001.000.29fit statuslack of fitfitlack of fitfitlack of fitfitfitlack of fitfinal modified mode1.810.990.930.991.000.990.970.06fit statusfitfitfitfitfitfitfitfitaccording to table 2, the model fit indices indicate the appropriate fit of the model: x2/df= 0.81 (acceptable level less than 3), ifi= 0.99, tli= 1.00, gfi= 0.99, agfi= 0.93, cfi= 0.99 (acceptable level more than 0.9), nfi= 0.97 (acceptable level more than 0.8) and rmsea= 0.06 (acceptable level less than 0.08).  figure 1final research model    as can be seen in figure 2, after removing the one direct path from adapted strategies to corona anxiety, the path of cognitive flexibility (β = -0.31, p <0.01) and maladaptive strategies (β = 0.23, p <0.01) to the corona anxiety and the paths of cognitive flexibility with the maladaptive strategies (β = -0.20, p <0.05), and adapted strategies (β = 0.37, p <0.01) were significant.  table 3indirect estimation of the model using the bootstrap method variablesβlower limitupper limitpcognitive flexibility on corona anxiety mediated by the maladaptive strategies-0.05-0.10-0.010.042the results of bootstrap test showed that maladaptive strategies played a significant mediating role in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and corona anxiety. thus, the mediation share of this variable in relation between cognitive flexibility and corona anxiety was -0.05 (p < 0.05). conclusionoverall, the results of this study show that, in addition to dealing with the physical consequences of the covid-19, the society is also experiencing its psychological impacts. according to the results, students with higher cognitive flexibility experience less corona anxiety. on the other hand, the more cognitive flexibility increases, the more maladaptive strategies improve, which results in a decrease in corona anxiety. despite the consistent and novel explanations obtained from this research study, there were some limitations to this study which should be mentioned. first, since the sample of the present study was composed only of male students, it seems that caution should be exercised in generalizing the research findings to other members of the community and age groups. because cognitive emotion regulation and consequently the issue of anxiety are different in age and gender groups,