relationship between maladaptive daydreaming and psychological distress in nurses; the moderating role of emotion regulation

Aims: nurses experience high job stress, which can make them vulnerable to psychological distress. psychological mechanisms such as emotion regulation and maladaptive daydreaming can modulate psychological distress. therefore, this study investigated the interactive effect of difficulty in emotion regulation and maladaptive daydreaming on nurses’ psychological distress.instrument & methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 186 nurses in mashhad, iran. participants completed the maladaptive daydreaming scale, the kessler psychological distress scale, the difficulty in emotion regulation scale, and a demographic questionnaire. data were analyzed using correlation and moderator regression analyses with spss 27 software.findings: after controlling for the effect of age, the main effect of maladaptive daydreaming on psychological distress was not significant, while the main effect of difficulty in emotion regulation was significant in predicting psychological distress (p<0.01). the interactive effect of maladaptive daydreaming and difficulty in emotion regulation on psychological distress was significant (r² change=0.019 and p<0.027). in other words, difficulty in emotion regulation had a moderating role in the relationship between maladaptive daydreaming and psychological distress.conclusion: difficulty in emotion regulation has a moderating role in the relationship between maladaptive daydreaming and psychological distress.