Presenting a Model for Predicting School Anxiety Based on Schema Modes and Difficulty in Emotion Regulation with the Mediating Role of Distress Tolerance in Students

Due to the importance of education in today's societies, school anxiety has been considered as a problem in the field of mental health of students. The purpose of this research was to present a model for predicting school anxiety based on schema modes difficulty in emotion regulation with the mediating role of distress tolerance in female students of the second year of high school in Ilam city. The method of descriptive correlational research was structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research included all female students of the second year of high school in Ilam city in the academic year 2021-2022, which according to the education statistics, their number was 3521 in the form of 16 schools. According to the table of Karjesi and Morgan, the sample size of 361 people was selected using the multi-stage cluster sampling method. To collect data, the distress tolerance questionnaire of Simmons and Gaher (2005), the difficulty in regulating emotions questionnaire of Gratz and Romer (2004), the schema modes questionnaire of Lobstal et al. (2010) and the Phillips school anxiety questionnaire (1987) were used. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between schema modes and difficulty in regulating emotions and distress tolerance with school anxiety (p<0.01). Also, the research model has a favorable fit, and schema modes and difficulty in emotion regulation directly and with the mediation of distress tolerance have an impact and predictably on school anxiety in students (RMSEA=0.073, GFI=0.906, CFI=0.921, NFI=0.913). It is concluded that students who have inconsistent schema modes and have difficulty in regulating their emotions, are not able to bear distress in challenging school situations and as a result suffer from anxiety.