Post-traumatic stress symptom, metacognition, emotional schema and emotion regulation: A structural equation model

a r t i c l e i n f o Objective: The present study aimed to assess the direct and indirect impacts of the metacognition, emotional schema and emotion regulation in prediction of post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptom. Method: Participants consisted of 678 high school students from earthquake-stricken areas of eastern Azerbaijan selected from Varzaghan, Ahar and Heris by multistage cluster sampling. PTSD Symptom Scale—Self Report (PSS-SR), Metacognition Questionnaire—Adolescent Version (MCQ-A), Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) were utilized for data collection. SPSS software and LISREL software were used for data analysis. Results: The results of SEM and path analysis indicated the direct and indirect (through emotion regulation) impacts of metacognition and also indirect (through emotion regulation) impact of emotional schema on PTS symptom. Model examination presented the good fitness of the proposed theoretical model. Conclusions: Consistent with metacognitive model and also emotional schema model, results of this study indicated the impact of metacognition and emotional schema on post-traumatic stress symptom through emotion regulation. This finding emphasizes that both metacognitive and emotional factors are important in explanation of PTS symptom. Human life has never been free from the traumatic events and also trauma has never been free from the economic, somatic, social and especially psychological consequences such as PTSD that is a prevalent outcome of traumatic events and includes reexperiencing, avoidance, negative cognitions and mood, and arousal (Association, 2013). There are many models for the explanations of the mechanism of the formation and persistence of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). On the one hand there are third wave approaches such as metacognitive model (Wells, 2000) and emotional schema model (Leahy, 2002). These approaches are particularly sensitive to the context and functions of psychological phenomena, not just their form, and thus tend to emphasize contextual and experiential change strategies in addition to more direct and didactic ones (Hayes, Follette, & Linehan, 2004). On the other hand, there exist a vast amount of studies that focus on the role of According to the metacognitive model, metacognition refers to cognition applied to cognition and maybe defined as any knowledge or cognitive processes involved in the appraisal, control, and monitoring of thinking (Wells, 2000). The activation of the Cognitive-Attentional Syndrome (CAS) is the main factor in formation of the PTSD. This syndrome contains the worry, rumination and threat monitoring (Wells, 2009). In line with the appraisal of the …