Prediction of pervasive anxiety and social anxiety based on cognitive flexibility in mothers of autistic children with the role of emotion regulation mediator

Taking care of autistic children makes the family, especially the mothers, face stress, anxiety and various problems, therefore, considering the necessity of research in this regard, the purpose of this research is to predict pervasive anxiety and social anxiety based on cognitive flexibility in mothers of autistic children. It was with the mediator role of regulating excitement.

The research design is a descriptive correlation of the path analysis type.The research population was all the mothers of autistic children who referred to autism centers in Tehran in the second 6 months of 2011, and among them, 122 people with male children between7and 11 years of age were selected as a sample. The tools of this research included the Short Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale by Spitzer et al. (2006), Social Anxiety Scale by Conner et al. (2000), Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire by Dennis and Vanderwaal (2010) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Gross and John (2003).

The results showed that cognitive flexibility has a negative and significant relationship with general anxiety (r=-0.44, p<0.01) and social anxiety (r=-0.37, p<0.01) and between cognitive flexibility and adjustment There is also a positive and significant relationship with emotion (r=0.65, p<0.01). Also, a significant negative relationship was found between emotion regulation and pervasive anxiety (r=-0.42, p<0.01) and social anxiety (r=-0.38, p<0.01). The results of path analysis to examine the proposed model showed that emotion regulation plays a mediating role in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and general anxiety and social anxiety.

According to the results, it can be said that emotion regulation as a component affecting generalized anxiety and social anxiety is affected by cognitive flexibility.