Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies and Marital Interpersonal Pathologies in Men with Avoidant Attachment: Investigating the Mediating Role of Caregiving Styles

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting marital interpersonal pathologies of men with avoidant attachment. Particularly, this study examined the role of men's cognitive emotion regulation strategies and the mediating role of their caregiving styles. Availability sampling method was used to select 420 married men with avoidant attachment who were referred to counseling centers in Isfahan, Iran for marital problems during 2021 to 2022. The participants were asked to answer to scales on their instruments included experiences in close relationships, cognitive emotion regulation, caregiving styles, and marital interpersonal pathologies. The data analysis was performed using structural equations via analysis of a moment structures software. The results showed that adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (MERS) and caregiving styles (sensitive, proximate, and controlling) directly predicted marital interpersonal pathologies. Also, caregiving styles (sensitive, proximate, and controlling) played a mediating role in the relationship between adaptive and MERS and marital interpersonal pathologies. Therefore, based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that family therapists examine cognitive emotion regulation strategies and caregiving styles in order to investigate and treat marital problems in such men.