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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Emotion Science
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1432318

Specific emotion regulation difficulties mediate the relationship between personal distress and depressive symptoms in medical students

Provisionally accepted
Valentina Colonnello Valentina Colonnello *Paola Castellano Paola Castellano Michela Mazzetti Michela Mazzetti Paolo Russo Paolo Russo
  • Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Several studies indicate a link between personal distress and vulnerability to depression. The literature also suggests that personal distress is associated with emotion dysregulation and that emotion dysregulation plays a role in depression. However, which of the various emotion regulation difficulties mediates the relationship between personal distress and depression remains unexplored. This study therefore aims to investigate the mediating role of specific emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between personal distress and depression. Of the 702 initially recruited participants, 635 completed a survey comprising the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. A mediation analysis was used to explore which emotion regulation difficulties mediate the relationship between personal distress and depression. Over a quarter (27%) of participants reported moderate-severe depression symptoms. Difficulties in accessing adaptive emotion regulation strategies and in having a clear understanding about one's own emotions partly mediated the relationship between personal distress and depression symptoms. Our results are the first to indicate that personal distress is linked to depression risk through specific emotion regulation difficulties in medical students. They also highlight possible modifiable skills that could be targeted by prevention intervention.

    Keywords: personal distress, Depression, Emotion Regulation, Mediation, Medical students, Empathy, Health, Personality

    Received: 13 May 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Colonnello, Castellano, Mazzetti and Russo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Valentina Colonnello, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.