Introduction
police work is considered one of the most stressful jobs, which can have adverse effects on general health and mental and spiritual health [1]. According to numerous studies, metacognitive beliefs are one of the variables affecting mental health [3-5] and spiritual health [6-9]. Cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies are also related to metacognitive beliefs [10, 11], mental health [12, 13], and spiritual health [14, 15]. The way metacognitive belief and CER strategies interact with each other and predict mental and spiritual health simultaneously has been reported in other studies [10, 11]. Since metacognitive beliefs predict CER strategies and the CER strategies predict mental and spiritual health, the present study aims to assess whether the general health and spiritual well-being of police forces in Iran can be predicted by metacognitive beliefs with the mediation of CER strategies.

Methods
This is a descriptive/correlational study using structural equation modeling (SEM). Participants were 294 employees of the police headquarters in Tehran, Iran, in 2023, who were selected using a convenience sampling method. Spiritual well-being scale (SWBS) [12], general health questionnaire (GHQ) [13], metacognition questionnaire (MCQ) [14], and cognitive emotion regulation strategies questionnaire (CERQ) [15] were used to collect data. SPSS software, version 22 and Amos version 24 were used for data analysis.

Results
Participants included 165 men and 129 women, with a mean age of 38 years. Also, 225 were married and 69 were single. Moreover, 10 participants had lower than high school education, 92 had high school diplomas, 139 had bachelor’s degrees, 48 ‌‌had master’s degrees, and 5 had PhD. The values of fit indices for the initial SEM model are presented in Table 1.
For the optimal fit of the model to the data, the Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Adjusted GFI (AGFI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), normed fit index (NFI), and Incremental Fit Index (IFI) should be greater than or equal to 0.90, and the Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA) should be equal to or less than 0.06. As can be seen in Table 1, the initial SEM model did not have optimal fitness. The non-optimal fitness of the model can be due to the non-significance of the direct path between metacognitive beliefs and spiritual well-being (t=-0.08, P>0.05). After removing this path, the fit indices of the modified model were obtained, presented in Table 2. As can be seen, the model fits the data well after modification. The final model indicates that metacognitive beliefs predict spiritual well-being and general health through CER strategies.



Conclusion
It can be concluded that metacognitive beliefs and CER strategies can predict the general health and spiritual well-being of Iranian police forces. The high metacognitive beliefs, including positive and negative beliefs about worry, can directly predict low general health and indirectly predict low general health and spiritual well-being by positively predicting maladaptive CER strategies. On the contrary, low metacognitive beliefs can positively predict adaptive CER strategies, leading to better general health and spiritual well-being. Therefore, educational workshops for Iranian police forces to reduce their metacognitive beliefs and increase their ability to use adaptive CER strategies are important to increase their general health and spiritual well-being.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committees of the Directorate of Health, Rescue and Treatment of Police Headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran-Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.SBMU.TEB.POLICE.REC.1402.071)

Funding
This research was funded by the Directorate of Health, Rescue and Treatment of Police Headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Authors contributions
Investigation and writing: Mohammad Mehrad Sadr; Conceptualization and supervision: Mohammad Ali Ameri; Review and editing: Hamidreza Saadat; Data analysis: Hossein Rostami.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest. 

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants and the police headquarters in Tehran for their cooperation in this study.

 

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