Structural Equation Model of Womens' Mental Health Based on Emotion Regulation Strategies: The Mediating Role of Psychological Flexibility

Women play valuable roles in the family and society, so it is important to study the factors affecting their mental health. The aim of the present study was to develop a mental health model based on emotion regulation strategies mediated by psychological flexibility.

The present study was applied research which was done by the descriptive-correlation methodology. The statistical population included women aged 18 to 40 years in 1400 AD, of which 312 women participated in the study via Convenience sampling through online calling. Data collection tools were: Short Form Mental Health Questionnaire (Keyes, 2005), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003), and Acceptance and Action Scale (Bond & et. al, 2011). Correlation of variables and reliability of tools were performed using SPSS -24 software and data analysis was performed by structural equation modeling using AMOS -24 software.

The results showed that emotion regulation strategies can explain mental health changes through psychological flexibility. According to the findings, psychological flexibility mediates both the relationship between emotion suppression strategy and Cognitive reassessment strategy with mental health. Evaluation of model fit indices showed that the structural model has a good fit (P<.01).

The results of the study indicate that psychological flexibility and the use of the suppression strategy in emotion regulation have a positive effect on women's mental health and in contrast, the use of reappraisal strategy in emotion regulation is associated with reduced mental health.