Relationship of Negative Strategies of Emotion Regulation with Anxiety and Depression in the Students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Background: Different investigations indicated the role of cognitive processes in the development of anxiety and depression. Cognitive emotion regulation refers the way in which cognitive processing confront with stressful situations. The current study aimed at predicting the symptoms of depression and anxiety through cognitive emotion regulation in the male students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Methods: The current descriptive study was conducted on all the male students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences studying at the university in 2016. The study sample included 204 subjects selected by the multistage cluster sampling method. Data were collected by the depression anxiety stress scale (DASS) - 21 and the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 23 using the Pierson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis. Results: The results showed a significant positive relationship between depression and self - blame (r = 0.32), depression and rumination (r = 0.33), depression and catastrophic thinking (r = 0.48), depression and other-blame (r = 0.40), anxiety and self - blame (r = 0.28), anxiety and rumination (r = 0.33), anxiety and catastrophic thinking (r = 0.47), and depression and other - blame (r = 0.45). Also, the results showed that the level of depression and anxiety students are predictable with regard to the negative cognitive emotion regulation. Among the cognitive emotion regulation strategies, catastrophic thinking could predict depression. Also, among the cognitive emotion regulation strategies, catastrophic thinking and other-blame could predict the anxiety. Conclusions: It seems that negative emotions correlate with anxiety and depression in medical students.