Psychological and social aspects of disease prevention
Majid Mahmood alilou; Khalil Esmaelpour; Abbas Bakhshipour; Fariba Pourjabbar Akhuni
Abstract
Objective: The present study, a descriptive-cross-sectional design using structural equation modeling, aimed to determine the structural relationships between coping strategies and somatoform symptoms, with the mediating role of emotional dysregulation among individuals with somatoform disorders in Tehran.Method: ...
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Objective: The present study, a descriptive-cross-sectional design using structural equation modeling, aimed to determine the structural relationships between coping strategies and somatoform symptoms, with the mediating role of emotional dysregulation among individuals with somatoform disorders in Tehran.Method: The statistical population consisted of all individuals with somatoform disorders referred to the psychosomatic departments of Tehran's hospitals. Following the recommendations of Guadagnoli and Velicer (1998), a sample of 250 patients (149 women and 101 men), who met the inclusion criteria, was recruited via purposeful sampling. Data were collected using the Lazarus and Folkman (1984) Coping Strategies Questionnaire, the Gratz and Roemer (2004) Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Rief and Hiller (2003) Somatoform Disorders Questionnaire. After confirmatory analysis, the proposed model was evaluated through structural equation modeling and path analysis.Results: The findings showed that the developed model has a good fit. The mediating variable, emotional dysregulation, was found to be a positive and significant predictor of somatoform symptoms (p < .001). Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies can respectively decrease and increase somatoform symptoms by reducing and increasing emotional dysregulation.Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that somatoform symptoms are affected by coping strategies and emotional dysregulation. Therefore, reducing the somatoform symptoms of people with this disorder requires serious attention to adopting appropriate, problem-focused coping strategies and correcting emotional dysregulation.
