[The mediator role of cognitive features in the relationship between adult attachment patterns and psychopathology symptoms: cognitive flexibility].

OBJECTIVE The principle aim of the study is to investigate the mediator role of cognitive flexibility in the known relationship between adult attachment patterns and psychopathology symptoms, including depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and social anxiety. Additionally, this study aims to generate integrative data regarding the relationship between early life experiences and psychopathology using a cognitive framework. METHOD There were 992 participants (661 women, 331 men) from 14 different colleges across 9 different provinces and. participants were evaluated using the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale-II, Beck Depression Inventory, the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Structural Equation Modeling and mediator analysis were applied to the data. RESULTS The results showed that there are some partial and full mediator roles of the cognitive flexibility-control in the relationship between attachment anxiety and depression, OCD and social anxiety for both women and men.Cognitive flexibility- control does not mediate the relationship between avoidant attachment and psychopathology symptoms for men, but cognitive flexibility-control has a partial mediator role in the relationship between avoidant attachment and both depression and social anxiety for women. CONCLUSION The present study demonstrates that cognitive flexibility- control is an important variable in the relationship between attachment patterns and psychopathology symptoms in both women and men.