Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Background & Objectives: Having a child with developmental and mental disabilities in the family can cause irreparable damage to its members. Research shows that parents of children with developmental and mental disabilities suffer more than the parents of normal children, regardless of race, marital status, or education. Distress tolerance is an emotional emotion that measures a person's expectations to tolerate negative emotion, assess emotional status in terms of acceptance, personal emotion regulation, and the amount of attention attracted by negative emotion. Mental toughness is the ability to stay healthy after experiencing high levels of stress due to personality traits such as self–control, commitment, and the ability to overcome challenges. Cognitive emotion regulation is defined as the cognitive emotion control method that includes negative and positive aspects. Given the importance of addressing parents' mental health, strengthening mental toughness, and reducing psychological distress, efforts should be made to identify psychological variables in this area. So, this study aims to predict the mental toughness and psychological distress of fathers with children with developmental and mental disabilities based on cognitive emotion regulation strategies.
Methods: This research is a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population consisted of fathers of children with developmental and mental disabilities whose children were studying in special schools in Mashhad City, Iran, in the academic year of 2019–2020. Using the available sampling method, 180 fathers of these children were selected as study samples. The inclusion criteria included having a child with an intellectual disability and having at least a diploma. The exclusion criterion of fathers was the unwillingness to cooperate in this study. To collect the study data, we used the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2006), Keesler Psychological Distress Questionnaire (KPDQ) (Kessler et al., 2003), and Ahvaz Hardiness Psychological Questionnaire (AHI) (Kiamarsi et al., 1998). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression) were used to analyze the data. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software version 21. The significance level was considered 0.05.
Results: The adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies had the highest significant correlation with the mental toughness variable (p<0.001, r=0.72). The regression coefficient of this variable was 0.56 and significant (p<0.001). The variable of maladaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation had a negative and significant relationship with the variable of mental toughness (p<0.001, r=–0.64). This variable had a regression coefficient of –0.48 and was significant (p<0.001). The variable of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies had a negative and significant relationship with the variable of psychological distress (p<0.001, r=–0.61). This variable had a regression coefficient of –0.46 and was significant (p<0.001). The variable of maladaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation had the highest significant correlation with the variable of psychological distress (p<0.001, r=0.73). The regression coefficient of this variable was 0.57 and significant (p<0.001).
Conclusion: According to research findings, emotional cognitive regulation strategies play an essential role in predicting the mental toughness and psychological distress of fathers with children with developmental and mental disabilities.