Volume 25, Issue 4 (Winter 2020)                   IJPCP 2020, 25(4): 396-411 | Back to browse issues page

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Mohammadkhani S, Hasani J, Akbari M, Yazdan Panah N. Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship of Metacognitive Beliefs and Attachment Styles With Risky Behaviors in Children of Iran-Iraq War Veterans With Psychiatric Disorders. IJPCP 2020; 25 (4) :396-411
URL: http://ijpcp.iums.ac.ir/article-1-2935-en.html
Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship of Metacognitive Beliefs and Attachment Styles With Risky Behaviors in Children of Iran-Iraq War Veterans With Psychiatric Disorders
Shahram Mohammadkhani 1, Jafar Hasani2 , Mehdi Akbari2 , Nasibe Yazdan Panah2
1- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. , sh.mohammadkhani@gmail.com
2- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
Keywords: Emotion regulation, Attachment style, Metacognition, Risky behavior, Adolescent, War veterans
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1. Introduction
Various studies have shown that post-traumatic symptoms affect veterans’ ability to play parental role [2]. The relationship between the injured veteran and his/her child is often characterized by conflict, control, excessive proximity and excessive protection. This, in turn, may lead to various psychiatric symptoms among their children, a phenomenon known as "secondary harm" [2]. Evidence of the transmission of damage from the parents to the second generation can be found in literature. One of the important studies was conducted on the children of Holocaust survivors who were reported to often have problems such as individuality, identity, repeated parental pathology, aggression, excessive guilt, depression and social isolation [3]. On the other hand, adolescence is an important developmental period associated with the process of identity formation [4]. A part of the developmental process of identity formation is risk-taking which may appear as unhealthy sexual behavior, alcohol consumption, smoking, substance abuse, running away from home/school, and aggressive behaviors [5-7]. Hence, one of the mental health problems of adolescent children of war veterans can be risky behaviors.
In Iran, as one of the countries with war casualties, most of studies have focused on the effects of Iran-Iraq war at the time of its occurrence. Investigating the long-term effects of Iran-Iraq war over more than three decades after its end is also necessary. Therefore, considering the importance of the indirect effects of war on the mental health of the children of war veterans, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating the role of emotion regulation strategies in the relationship of metacognitive beliefs and attachment styles with risky behaviors among adolescent children of Iran-Iraq war veterans.
2. Methods
This is a descriptive-correlational study. The study population consisted of all male and female children of Iran-Iraq war veterans in Tehran, Iran, aged 12-17 years. Of these, 253 were selected and voluntarily responded to the short form of Cognitive Emption Regulation Questionnaire, Metacognitions Questionnaire for Children, Risky Behavior Scale, and Collins and Reid's Revised Adult Attachment Scale. The collected data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in SPSS V. 18 and AMOS V. 22.
3. Results
According to goodness-of-fit indexes, the hypothesized model had good fit. Overall, the metacognitive beliefs, attachment styles and emotion regulation strategies explained 14% of the variance of risky behaviors. The results of path analysis showed that the direct effect of metacognitive beliefs on the adaptive emotion regulation strategies was not significant, but the direct effect of metacognitive beliefs on maladaptive emotion regulation strategies was significant. Furthermore, the direct effect of metacognitive beliefs on the risky behaviors of children was not significant. The direct effect of attachment styles on adaptive and maladaptive strategies and on the risky behaviors was significant. Moreover, the direct effect of adaptive and maladaptive emotional regulation strategies on the risky behaviors children was significant. Finally, the indirect effect of metacognitive beliefs and attachment styles on the risk behaviors was significant through the emotion regulation strategies (Figure 1)



4. Discussion
War as a severe stressful factor, has many social, economic, cultural and individual consequences affected the relationship of many generations of people [33]. The relationship between a war veteran suffering from psychiatric disorders and his/her children is often characterized by conflict, control, excessive proximity and excessive protection which cause the incidence of some psychological disorders among these children [36].
However, the fundamental mechanism of such effect is not clear yet. Given the importance of understanding the mechanism of psychological pathology in designing preventive and therapeutic interventions, the present study aimed to investigate the role of emotional regulation strategies(as a fundamental mediation process) in the relationship of metacognitive beliefs and attachment styles (as the underlying causes of psychopathology) [8-10, 12, 13, 17, 37] with risky behaviors among adolescent children of war veteran suffering from psychiatric disorders. According to the results, it seems that adolescents in these families have various emotional problems, and some of them use strategies such as rumination, anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, etc. Using emotional regulation and metacognitive training interventions for effective management of inevitable tensions and stresses associated with living with a war veteran can be very helpful in preventing risky behaviors in their children [42]. Metacognitive therapy may also help reduce the emotional problems and risky behaviors such as substance abuse [43, 44].
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
An informed consent was obtained from the participantsafter explaining the research objectives and method. Theywere also free to leave the study at any time and were assured of the confidentiality of their information.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from fundingagencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Authors contributions
Conceptualization, methodology, initial draft preparation: All authors; Investigation, supervision and project administration: Nasibeh Yazdan Panahi and Shahram Mohammadkhani; Resources, editing and review: Shahram Mohammadkhani, Jafar Hasani and Mehdi Akbari.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the participants for their cooperation in this research.


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Type of Study: Original Research | Subject: Psychiatry and Psychology
Received: 2018/11/13 | Accepted: 2019/08/19 | Published: 2020/04/18
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