Psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

INTRODUCTION: Gross's Emotion Regulation Questionnaire is one of the most widely-used and valid questionnaires for assessing emotion regulation strategies. The validity and reliability of the Persian version have not been determined and data on its psychometric properties are not available to Iranian mental health researchers. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire in Iranian students. METHODOLOGY: In this cross-sectional study, 348 students (170 males and 178 females) were selected from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science and Tehran University of Medical Science. The following statistical procedures were conducted: correlation coefficients, factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and independent t tests. RESULTS: The results showed that men use suppression more than women (T = -2.62, p = 0.009). Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.76 for the cognitive reappraisal sub-scale and 0.72 for the suppression sub-scale (excluding question 9). Six questions related to the cognitive reappraisal factor explained 30.97% of emotion regulation variance, and 3 questions related to the suppression factor explained 22.59% of emotion regulation variance. Overall, these factors explained 53.5% of emotion regulation variance. There were significant correlations between suppression and difficulties in emotion regulation, trait anxiety, and affective control. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between cognitive reappraisal and the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the Persian version of the ERQ is a reliable and valid instrument that can be helpful for development of further important studies of emotional regulation.

The Study of Cognitive Change Process on Depression during Aerobic Exercises.

INTRODUCTION: Several studies have shown that aerobic exercise is effective in treating the depression and improving the mental health. There are various theories which explains why aerobic exercise is effective in the treatment of depression and improve mental health, but there are limited studies to show how cognitive components and depression improve during aerobic exercises. AIM: The current study was carried out to investigate the cognitive change process during aerobic exercises in depressed students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted through structural equation modeling; the study sample included 85 depressed students. Participants were selected through purposive sampling method. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Automatic Negative Thoughts (ATQ), and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) were used as the data collection instruments. The participants received eight sessions of aerobic exercise (three times a week). The obtained data was analysed by AMOS-18 & SPSS 18 software. RESULTS: The results showed that depression (p=0.001), automatic thoughts (ferquency p=0.413, beliefs p=0.676) and dysfunctional assumptions (p=0.219) reduce during aerobic exercise; however, it was only meaningful for the depression. The casual and consequential models were not fit to the data and partially and fully interactive models provided an adequate fit to the data. CONCLUSION: Fully interactive model provided the best fit of the data. It seems that aerobic exercise reduced cognitive components separately leading to reduce depression.