The mediating role of worry and rumination in the relationship between behavioral brain systems and generalized anxiety disorder in students

It has been well established that there is a relationship between behavioral brain systems and generalized anxiety disorder, but the role of mediators in this relationship has not been considered. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the mediating role of worry and rumination in the relationship between behavioral brain systems and generalized anxiety disorder in students.

This was descriptive-correlational research. The sample of this research included 200 students from the Applied Science Center of the Industrial Management Organization of Khorasan Razavi Province. Students were selected using cluster sampling method from among applied science centers in Mashhad in 2018-2019. Data were collected using the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation System Scale (Carver & White, 1994), the Penn state worry questionnaire (Mayer et al., 1991), the Rumination Response Scale (Treynor et al., 2003), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale (Spitzer et al., 2006). Data were analyzed using the software SPSS version 24 and lisrel software, Pearson correlation method and path analysis method.

The findings of the present research showed that there is a relationship between behavioral inhibition system and generalized anxiety disorder, but there is no relationship between behavioral activation system and this disorder. The model related to the mediating role of worry and rumination has a good fit with the relationship between behavioral inhibition system and generalized anxiety disorder in students. In other words, worry and rumination play a mediating role in the relationship between behavioral inhibition system and generalized anxiety disorder in students.

The results of this research suggest that the behavioral inhibition system, worry and rumination play an important role in causing generalized anxiety disorder in students