The Relationship between Self-Differentiation and Communication Beliefs in Couples' Stress Perception and the Mediating Role of Emotional Cognitive Regulation

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-differentiation and communication beliefs in the perception of couple stress and the mediating role of emotional cognitive regulation.

In terms of data collection method, it was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of the study was all couples who referred to counseling and psychological clinics in District 3 of Tehran in 1400. Among them, a sample of 200 people was selected by available sampling method. In this study, in order to collect data from self-differentiation questionnaires (Drake, 2011), perceived stress (Cohen, Camarck and Marmelstein, 1983), communication beliefs (Eidelsen and Epstein, 1982) and discipline. Emotional cognition (Garnowski et al., 2001) was used.

The findings showed that there is a significant direct and indirect relationship between differentiation and perceived stress and between communication beliefs and perceived stress (through the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation). (p<0/05)

The results showed that cognitive regulation strategies of emotion and communication beliefs have an important and effective role on the quality and stability of couples' lives. Because the deficiencies in the emotional and emotional adequacy of couples along with misconceptions can be an obstacle to establishing a sincere relationship and understanding the feelings and reducing the satisfaction of couples.