The mediating role of anger rumination on the relationship between anger and pain intensity in chronic musculoskeletal pain patients

The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of anger rumination on the relationship between anger and pain intensity in chronical musculoskeletal pain patients. For this purpose, a sample of 109 chronic musculoskeletal pain patients were selected by convenience sampling method from the hospitals and clinics in shiraz. For collecting data, multidimensional pain questionnaire, multidimensional anger inventory and anger rumination scale were used. The present study is descriptive-correlation and analysis of data was carried using simple correlation coefficient and regression analysis by Baron and Kenny (1986), using SPSS-21 software.. Finding showed that anger and all of it’s dimensions except Anger-eliciting situations and Anger-out predicted pain intensity. anger and all of it’s dimensions predicted anger rumination. . In addition, results showed that anger rumination completely mediated the relationship between anger and pain intensity. Furthermore, the mediator role of anger rumination was confirmed only for internal dimensions that had a significant relationship with the pain severity, such as anger arousal, hostile outlook and anger-in. However, this mediator role of anger was not confirmed for the dimensions with external nature, and there wasn’t any significant correlations between pain severity and these dimensions, such as anger-eliciting situations and anger out. in general, anger rumination exacerbates and continues the negative effects of anger on the pain severity in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.