The effect of emotion regulation, anger rumination and self-criticism on social maladaptation by the mediating role of self-compassion and psychological flexibility in senior high school students

This study aimed to investigate the effect of emotion regulation, anger rumination, and self-criticism on social maladaptation by the mediating role of self-compassion and psychological flexibility in high school students of Ahvaz. The research design was descriptive-correlational through structural equation modeling (SEM). The statistical population of the study included all high school students in Ahvaz in the academic year 2020-2021 (In total, 49,744 students). From this population, 850 students were selected by the multi-stage cluster sampling method to test the research hypotheses. The instruments used in this study included the Gross and John’ Emotion Regulation Scale (2003), Sukhodolsky et al.’ Anger Rumination Scale (2001), Thompson and Zuroff’ Levels of Self-Criticism Scale (2004), Neff’ Self-Compassion Scale (2003), Bond et al.’ Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (2011), and Weitzman’ Social Development Scale (1990). The goodness of fit of the proposed model was examined through structural equation modeling (SEM), using SPSS-24 and Amos-24 software packages. The indirect effects were tested by the Bootstrap procedure. The results showed a good fit of the final model with the data. The results showed that emotional regulation, anger rumination, and self-criticism have direct effects on students' social maladaptation (p<0.05). The findings also showed that self-compassion and psychological flexibility mediate the effects of predictor variables on social maladaptation (p<0.05). According to the research results, emotional regulation, anger rumination, self-criticism, self-compassion, and psychological flexibility are the most important variables affecting adolescents' social maladaptation that should be considered when formulating and implementing interventions.