Examining the mediating role of emotion dysregulation in the relationship between psychological flexibility and somatization in individuals with early parental loss

This study investigated the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between psychological flexibility and somatization among individuals who experienced early parental loss. The sample of the study consisted of 403 individuals aged between 19 and 72 who had lost a parent before the age of 18. Data were collected using the Personal Information Form, the Psychological Flexibility Scale, the Emotion Regulation Difficulties Scale-Short Form (ERDS-SF), and the Somatization Subscale of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). To examine the differences in psychological flexibility, emotion regulation difficulties, and somatization based on gender and characteristics related to parental loss, Independent Samples t-Test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Analysis was employed to investigate the relationships between variables, and the SPSS Process Macro Version 4.2 was utilized to examine the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between psychological flexibility and somatization. The analysis results indicated that psychological flexibility and emotion regulation difficulties did not differ based on gender or characteristics related to parental loss. However, somatization was found to be higher in women compared to men and in individuals who had lost both parents compared to those who had lost only their father. Additionally, there were significant negative correlations between psychological flexibility and both emotion regulation difficulties and somatization. A significant positive correlation was found between emotion regulation difficulties and somatization. Finally, it was determined that emotion regulation difficulties played a full mediating role in the relationship between psychological flexibility and somatization. These findings were discussed in the context of the relevant literature, and the study's limitations and suggestions for future research were presented.