The mediating effect of rumination on the effect of cognitive distortions on depression and anxiety in young unemployed

Our study focuses on examining the assumptions necessary to test the mediating effect of rumination on the relationship between cognitive distortions and depression/anxiety in unemployed youth. In this direction, data were collected from a total of 318 participants, 233 of whom were women and 85 were men. Thought Types Scale, Ruminative Thinking Style Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used as data collection tools in the study together with the personal information form. Structural equation model was established and tested in order to determine the mediator role of rumination in the effect of thinking styles on depression and anxiety. In the first step, it was determined that overgeneralization had a significant effect on depression, while catastrophizing and underestimating or ignoring the positive also had a significant effect on anxiety. In the second step, the significance of the independent variable (types of thinking) on the mediating variable (rumination) and the sub-dimensions meeting this assumption were examined, and overgeneralization was the only sub-dimension that met the second assumption. In the last step, the mediating effect of rumination on the relationship between the overgeneralization sub-dimension and depression was evaluated. However, our results showed that rumination did not have a mediating effect, as the effect of overgeneralization on depression remained at a significant level and did not decrease compared to the first step. Key words: Unemployed, Cognitive Distortions, Depression, Anxiety, Rumination