Structural model of inhibition and behavioral activation system and cognitive control and flexibility with adolescent depression with the mediating role of rumination

Behavioral inhibition and activation systems explain changes in a person's mood and behaviors based on contextual factors, and therefore individual differences in sensitivities lead to differences in processing. In addition, rumination as a sustained response style is closely related to the maintenance of major depressive disorder and is an maladaptive pattern of focusing on negative thoughts and feelings. Considering the impact of depression on emotional, physical, and cognitive dimensions, it can cause problems in attention, memory, and cognitive control in affected people, therefore, more research on cognitive control in depressive disorder is needed.

This study aimed to investigate the structural model of inhibition and behavioral activation system and cognitive control and flexibility with adolescent depression with the mediating role of rumination.

This research was fundamental in purpose and a descriptive-correlational study of the structural equation modeling method. The statistical population of this study consisted of all high school students in Tehran who are studying in the academic year 2023-2024. The sample consisted of 347 Tehran students selected by cluster sampling. To collect data, the Rumination Questionnaire of Nolen et al. (1991), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale of Zigmond and Snaith (1983), the Inhibition and Behavioral Activation System Questionnaire of Carver et al. (1994), and the Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire (CCFQ) of Gabrys et al. (2018) were used. To evaluate the proposed model, structural equation modeling and AMOS.24 and SPSS. 27 were used.

The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant relationship between behavioral activation system, cognitive control, and flexibility with rumination depression (P< 0.05). The findings indicate that the proposed model is appropriately fit with the data. The results of structural equation modeling showed that in the model, 20% of the variance in rumination drowning is explained by cognitive control flexibility and inhibition and behavioral activation system. Finally, 29% of the variance of depression is explained by cognitive control and flexibility, inhibition, behavioral activation system, and drowning in rumination.

According to these findings, the use of therapeutic interventions that provide the basis for psychological flexibility and cognitive control can help reduce rumination and depressive symptoms.