Relationship of cognitive coping strategies with anxiety and depression symptoms

Abstract

In the present study, the data of a sample of 38 participants that were selected after meeting the requirements of having requested psychological treatment and presenting some type of emotional disorder are presented. All of them received psychological treatment at the Center for Psychology and Health Psychology Ten, Collaborating Center of the University of Cádiz, Huelva and UNED, and with health certification from the Ministry of Health of the Junta de Andalucía. As an objective, we propose to verify whether a greater use of the rumination and catastrophizing strategy is mainly related to anxiety symptoms, while the use of the self-criticism strategy will be mainly related to depression symptoms. All participants completed the Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). When some strategies such as self-blame, rumination and catastrophizing are used in the face of adverse events seem to facilitate the onset of emotional disturbances, the use of cognitive strategies such as positive reevaluation allows reducing the probability of developing the appearance of emotional disturbances. The results show which cognitive coping strategies in the face of adversities are related to anxious symptoms or which cognitive coping strategies are related to depressive symptoms and which on the contrary have a protective effect.