The role of mentalization, psychological flexibility and difficulty in regulating emotion in predicting psychological distress and sleep problems in pregnant women During the Corona Epidemic

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of mentalization, psychological flexibility and difficulty in regulating emotion in predicting psychological distress and sleep problems in pregnant women During the Corona Epidemic.

The method of this study was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study was all pregnant women who referred to health centers in Sanandaj in 1400. For this purpose, 230 of these people were selected by available sampling method, they answered the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, the Psychological Flexibility Inventory, the Emotion Difficulty Scale, the Kessler Psychological Distress Questionnaire, and the Sleep Disorder Questionnaire. After collection of questionnaires, the collected data were analyzed simultaneously using Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis.

The results showed that there is a significant relationship between mentalization, psychological flexibility and difficulty in emotion regulation with psychological distress and sleep problems in pregnant women (p <0.01). The results of multiple regression analysis also revealed that 71.6% of the variance of sleep problems and 75.7% of the variance of psychological distress can be explained by mentalization, psychological flexibility and difficulty in regulating emotion.

According to the findings, it can be concluded that mentalization, psychological flexibility and difficulty in regulating emotion can predict psychological distress and sleep problems in pregnant women during the Covid 19 epidemic.