Perceived stress

The phenomenon of stress and its role in sickness and health is overt. Furthermore, various studies have confirmed the role of emotions in psychological well-being; but the relation between stress and emotions is one of the important issues about which there are different theories. The aim of the present study is to compare the effect of three interventions including: emotional expression, meditation and compound method on perceived stress. <br />The design used in the present study is quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest with control group and a two-month follow-up stage. Forty men who voluntarily had referred to Tavan Afza Clinic were chosen using hand-to-hand sampling method and were randomly assigned to four groups. The Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale was used in the pretest, posttest and follow-up stages and the intervention lasted for eight sessions within one month. The data were analyzed by covariance and T-test independent group test. The statistical data indicated that the difference between the compound treatment group and control group by the significance level of 5% and the confidence level of 95% was significant; but the difference between the other groups was not significant. The results indicated that the compound method can be effective in reducing perceived stress of the youth. Therefore, this method can be used as an effective way to reduce stress in the stressed-out people and to improve psychological well-being in the youth.

Objective: The aim of present study was to predict perceived social support based on perceived stress mediated by cognitive emotion regulation in patients with ulcerative colitis. Methods: The method of study was correlational, structural equation modeling type. The statistical population of the present study included all patients with ulcerative colitis, referred to gastroenterology clinics in Districts 4 and 7 of Tehran in 2019. Among them, 261 people were selected through purposeful sampling method. The research tools included perceived social support scale (Zimet et al., 1998), perceives stress scale (Cohen et al., 1983), and cognitive emotion regulation scale (Garnefski and Kraaij, 2006). Results: The results revealed a negative relationship between perceived stress and perceived social support (β=-0.13, t=2.04) and negative relationship between perceived stress and cognitive emotion regulation (β=-0.21, t=2.96) in patients with ulcerative colitis. A positive relationship was also found between cognitive emotion regulation and perceived social support (β= 0.47, t=7.18) but cognitive emotion regulation had no mediating role between perceived stress and perceived social support in patients with ulcerative colitis (β= 0.09, p>0.05). Conclusions: Although there were direct relationships between perceived stress, perceived social support and cognitive emotion regulation but the results revealed no indirect relationship between perceived stress and perceived social support mediated by cognitive emotion regulation in patients with ulcerative colitis. Thus, paying attention to these variables helps researchers and therapists in design of appropriate therapy for Ulcerative Colitis patients.

The aim of the present study was to predict self- destructiveness based on perceived stress, brain-behavioral systems and defense styles. The population was the students of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2017-2018; through convenience sampling method, 150 completed questionnaires were analyzed. The design was correlational. chronic self- destructiveness scales (CSDS), perceived stress scale (PSS), behavioral inhibition-activation systems scale (BIS/BAS) and defense styles (DSQ) were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient as well as stepwise regression. The results showed that there was a relationship between self-destructiveness and perceived stress (p≤.01), punishment sensitivity (p≤.001), reward responsiveness (p≤.05), drive (p≤.01), and fun seeking (p≤.01). Immature defense style (p≤.01) and neurotic defense style (p≤.01) have a relationship. Moreover, the regression analysis revealed that fun seeking (R2=.33), reward sensitivity (R2=.26), driving (R2=.23), neurotic defense styles (R2=.17), immature defense styles (R2=.11) and punishment sensitivity (R2=.11) could predict self- destructiveness. In conclusion, it can be said that perceived stress is in dynamic relationship with brain-behavioral systems and defense styles can predict self- destructiveness. Punishment sensitivity among brain-behavioral systems, and immature defense styles among the defense styles, were most strongly associated with self-destructiveness.

Objective: This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral therapy on the perceived stress, disease adaptation, quality of life, and cognitive function of patients undergoing chemotherapy. Method: The design of the study was semi-experimental with a pretest-post test and control group. The statistical population of this study was all patients with sarcoma-lymphatic and gastrointestinal cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Firoozgar-Taleghani-Shariati specialized hospitals in Tehran in the second half of 2021. The study sample consisted of 40 patients with cancer who were selected through convenience sampling and then were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (20 in each group). The therapy was performed by the researcher for eight 90 minutes –sessions, two sessions per week. Research data were collected using Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale, Watson's disease adaptability, Barclay's cognitive functions, and quality of life questionnaires, and were analyzed by multivariate repeated measures variance analysis. Results: The results showed a significant difference in all variables, and demonstrated that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy significantly improved perceived stress, disease adaptation, quality of life, and cognitive functions of participants in the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up. Conclusion: According to the research findings, it can be concluded that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is effective in improving the psychological indicators of cancer patients.