Relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and depression: The intermediary role of interpersonal problems

Increasing prevalence and wide range consequences of depression indicate the necessity of investigating psychopathological factors associated with this disorder. Study of intermediary effects is a standard method for investigating pathological models. This study has examined the relationship between ambivalence over emotional expression and depression and the intermediary role of interpersonal problems in this relationship.
Therefore, in a descriptive correlational study, a sample of 521 (420 female and 101 male) students from three universities in Tehran (Shahed University, Tehran University and Islamic Azad University- Tehran medical branch) in academic year 2015-2016 were selected through availability sampling method and evaluated by Ambivalence over Emotional Expression Questionnaire (AEQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP). Path analysis method of the data revealed that only ambivalence over positive emotional expression is related to depression and aspects such as [difficulties in] assertiveness, sociability, and aggressiveness are the indications of intermediary role of interpersonal problems in this context. The significance of direct effect between ambivalence over positive emotional expression and depression is also demonstrating that [difficulties in] assertiveness, sociability, and aggressiveness are comparative mediators in the relationship of these two variables, and that there are other variables acting as mediators. According to this study, it is concluded that disturbance in interpersonal relationships is one of the mechanisms that link ambivalence over the expression of positive emotions to depression.