Practice in Clinical Psychology
Year:2022 | Volume:10 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Objective: Given the importance of COVID-19 consequences and students’,health, this study aimed to predict the fear of COVID-19 based on spiritual well-being and self-efficacy among Iranian university students by focusing on the mediating role of mindfulness. Methods: This study was a descriptive correlational study. An online sampling method was used, and the sample included 396 university students in Tehran City, Iran. Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), general self-efficacy scale, fear of COVID-19 scale, and Paloutzian and Ellison’, s spiritual well-being scale were used for data collection. An independent t test, the Pearson correlation, and the regression test were used to analyze the obtained data. Results: The results show that the overall effects of religious well-being (β, =-0. 192, P=0. 001), existential well-being (β, =-0. 227, P=0. 001), and self-efficacy (β, =-0. 093, P=0. 013) were significant. The indirect effects of religious well-being (β, =-0. 026, P=0. 001), existential wellbeing (β, =-0. 013, P=0. 016), and self-efficacy (β, =-0. 04, P=0. 001) were significant, too. The direct effects of religious well-being (β, =-0. 253, P=0. 001), existential well-being (β, =-0. 205, P=0. 016), and self-efficacy (β, =-0. 133, P=0. 013) were significant, as well. Conclusion: Spiritual well-being, self-efficacy, and mindfulness are associated with a reduction in perceived fear of COVID 19 in Iranian students, and mindfulness has a role in these relationships.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of schema therapy with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) using exposure techniques on cognitive avoidance in female patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Methods: A total of 10 women with generalized anxiety disorder were selected through purposeful sampling with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID-5). To determine the absence of personality disorder, Millon’, s clinical multiaxial inventory (MCMI-III) (Millon and Groosman, 2005) was used. Schema therapy was conducted for 20 weekly sessions and ACT with exposure techniques for 12 weeks and follow-up for 6 weeks. The cognitive avoidance questionnaire (CAQ) (Sexton and Douglas, 2004) was used as a pretest and posttest to follow up on the results. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to test the research hypotheses. Results: The results showed that schema therapy is more effective than ACT in the subscales of thought suppression (F=12. 80, P=0. 037) and avoidance of threatening (F=25. 61, P=0. 015), but they have no significant statistical difference in other subscales and total score. Both treatments significantly reduced the total score of cognitive avoidance, but they lacked a statistically significant difference. Conclusion: Schema therapy and ACT with exposure techniques are effective in reducing the severity of symptoms and improving cognitive avoidance in females with generalized anxiety disorder.

Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between reward and punishment sensitivities and positive and negative emotion regulation strategies among university students. Methods: A total of 189 students of one of the universities in Tehran City, Iran, were selected by accessible random sampling. Then, the emotion regulation scale, attention control scale, experience questionnaire, emotional regulation questionnaire, positive emotion response questionnaire, and punishment and reward sensitivity questionnaire were distributed among them to collect data. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS software v. 26 using the Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis. Results: The Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant relationship between punishment and reward sensitivity and positive and negative emotion regulation strategies. Multiple regression analysis showed that sensitivity to reward and punishment could predict positive emotion regulation strategies properly. Multiple regression analysis results indicated that sensitivity to reward and punishment could also predict negative emotion regulation strategies. Conclusion: Sensitivity to punishment and reward were significant and common factors in emotion regulation. These results show that activation as a technique plays a significant role in the behavior that enhances the individual’, s search for reward. It suggests that this approach can increase reward-seeking and thus improve emotional regulation.

Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of group schema therapy-based parenting education in modifying the child’, s early maladaptive schemas and improving the parent-child relationship quality. Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The study’, s statistical population includes all mothers and their daughters (8 to 10 years old, living in District 2 of Tehran City, Iran, who are students in 2020-2021). Among 65 mothers willing to participate in the study, 40 were selected by the available sampling method, according to the inclusion criteria. Then, they were randomly assigned to two groups of 20 people in the experimental and control groups. In this study, the schema inventory for children (by Rijkeboer & De Boo) and the parent-child relationship scale (by Pinata) were used. The data of this study were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: Data analysis showed that parenting education had a significant effect on schemas of vulnerability, mistrust/abuse, failure, submission, unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness, selfsacrifice, and entitlement/grandiosity, but on the schemas of loneliness, defectiveness/shame, enmeshment/undeveloped self, and insufficient self-control/self-discipline had no significant effect. Data analysis also showed that parenting education significantly affects the subscales of closeness, dependence, and total positive relationship but has no significant effect on the conflict subscale. Conclusion: The present study shows that group schema therapy-based parenting education for mothers is effective in modifying some of the early maladaptive schemas of children and improving the quality of the parent-child relationship.

Objective: This study examined the role of social desirability, self-esteem, and some demographic variables in predicting university students’,attitudes toward people with physicalmotor disabilities. Methods: The participants in this cross-sectional study were 300 students of Kurdistan University, Sanandaj city, Iran, selected using convenience sampling. The students completed the items in the Google forms of the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale (MC-SDS), Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965b), a demographic information form, and the multidimensional attitudes scale towards persons with disability (MAS). The collected data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical linear regression analysis in SPSS software v. 23. Results: The results showed significant attitudinal differences in students with different demographic characteristics except for gender and education (P<0. 05). In addition, social desirability and self-esteem were stronger predictors of the students’,attitudes toward people with physical-motor disability than each variable alone (P>0. 05). Conclusion: Various demographic variables and other factors like self-esteem and social desirability affect students’,attitudes toward people with physical-motor disabilities. A key implication of the present study is that the role of tested variables could differ depending on cognitive, affect, and behavioral dimensions of attitudes. Researchers must pay attention to this point in future studies.

Objective: With the development of technology and easy access to various contents in the Internet, pornography consumption, along with individual characteristics, can be one of the factors affecting couples’,relationships. This study aimed to assess the role of pornography consumption and sexual perfectionism with the mediating role of sexual self-concept on marital burnout among university students in Iran. Methods: The research was a cross-sectional and correlational study. The study population consisted of married students of Islamic Azad University, of which 210 answered online to Pornography Consumption Inventory (PCI), the Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire (MSSCQ), multidimensional sexual perfectionism questionnaire (MSPQ), and couple burnout measure. The PCI and MSSCQ questionnaires were translated into Persian for the first time and used after confirming their validity and reliability. Correlation coefficients (using SPSS software v. 26) and path analysis (using LISREL statistical software) were used to investigate the variables of the couple burnout prediction model. Results: Based on the study results, positive sexual self-concept was not related to marital burnout. However, negative self-concept was positively related to marital burnout. There was no direct relationship between pornography and marital burnout, but there is a positive relationship with the mediating role of negative sexual self-concept. Sexual perfectionism was positively associated with marital burnout. Negative sexual self-concept also mediates between sexual perfectionism and marital burnout. Conclusion: The results indicated that high sexual perfectionism was associated with higher marital burnout and individual with negative sexual self-concept under the influence of pornography and high sexual perfectionism were more prone to marital burnout.

Objective: Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD) is characterized by somatic symptoms that are very distressing or cause considerable functional disability. SSD is associated with various medical and psychiatric conditions and imposes high costs on the health care system. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment of SSD are crucial. The somatic symptom scale-8 (SSS-8) is a valuable and brief self-report questionnaire to assess somatic symptom burden. The current study determined the psychometric properties of the Persian version of SSS-8 in depressed samples. Methods: The study data were collected from a clinical setting with individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD, n=122). The convergent validity of SSS-8 was examined by assessing its correlation with the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), the Whiteley index (WI-14), and somatic symptom disorder-B criteria scale (SSD-12) questionnaires. Results: The Cronbach α,results confirmed the reliability of SSS-8. Reliability assessment with test-retest showed excellent reliability for scale. The confirmatory factor analysis also approved the SSS-8 single-factor structure. The results of construct validity analysis of the questionnaire showed that SSS-8 has a positive and significant relationship with depression, anxiety, WI, and SSS-12. Conclusion: The Persian version of the SSS-8 is an 8-item self-report questionnaire that health professionals and researchers can use to assess and screen somatic symptoms in individuals diagnosed with MDD.