The Mediating Role of Perceived Stress in the Relationship between Personality Traits and Negative Automatic Thoughts in Adolescents with Migraine

Literature suggests that chronic headaches, particularly migraines, in adolescents are crucially affected by psychological problems. In addition, groundbreaking studies have shown that preexisting personality traits are important to accelerate the likelihood of migraine onset, maintenance, and outcome. This study aims, therefore, to investigate the mediating role of perceived stress in personality traits and negative automatic thoughts, in adolescents with migraine. In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, the participants consisted of patients with chronic migraine referring to two neurology clinics in Ahvaz City, Iran, from 2019 to 2020. The diverse sample of patients (n =200) completed Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale, NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-N).  To analyze the obtained data, SPSS V. 21 and Amos 18 were used. Based on the standard path coefficients and the P-values, the relationship between personality traits and the negative dimension of perceived stress (β = -46, P≥ 0.001), personality traits and the positive dimension of perceived stress (β = 0.44, P≥ 0.001), the negative dimension of perceived stress and negative spontaneous thoughts (β = 0.45, P≥ 0.008), and the positive dimension of perceived stress and negative automatic thoughts (β = -0.28, P≥ 0.004) were significant. According to the results, the indirect relationship between personality traits and n negative automatic thoughts was established and significant through the negative dimension of perceived stress. Moreover, the indirect relationship between personality traits and negative automatic thoughts was established and significant through the positive dimension of perceived stress.