Mediating Role of Ego Strength in the Relationship between Attachment Styles and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies

The aim of the present study was to examine mediating effect of ego strength on the relationship between attachment styles of secure, avoidant, and ambivalent and cognitive emotion regulation strategies.Five hundred and eleven students (269females, 242 males) voluntarily participated in the study. All participants were asked to complete the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI; Besharat, 1384, 2011), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ; Garnefski & Kraaij, 2006), and the Ego Strength Scale (ESS; Besharat, 1386). The results indicated that the secure attachment style had significant positive association with adaptive cognitive emotion regulation and and negative associationwith maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Additionally, the avoidant attachment style was positively associated with adaptive cognitive emotion regulation and ambivalent attachment style was negativelyassociated with adaptive cognitive emotion regulation. The results of regression analysis indicated that the ego strength partially mediated the relationship between attachment styles and both adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The secure and insecure attachment styles predicted changes of adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies in opposite directions through ego strength.