Guan Siqing, Takahashi Toru, Tomita Nozomi, Kumano Hiroaki
Research Area of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21223. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-99249-5.
Rumination and worry, as maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, perpetuate internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, examinations of dysfunctional mind wandering (MW)-internally oriented thoughts that contribute to emotion dysregulation-and its underlying the cognitive mechanisms related to internalizing symptoms remains limited. This study aimed to identify dysfunctional types of MW associated with internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety by distinguishing between the intentionality and content of MW. The results indicate that trait rumination and worry sequentially mediate the relationship between the frequency of unintentional MW, which encompasses vague, future-oriented, and negative content, and internalizing symptoms. Furthermore, both single and chained mediation effects were identified in the relationship between unintentional negative MW and internalizing symptoms, with worry acting either as a sole mediator or as a subsequent mediator following rumination in a chain mediation pathway. This study offers novel insight into the distinct roles of rumination and worry as maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, particularly regarding dysfunctional MW types and their contributions to internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
反刍和担忧作为适应不良的情绪调节策略，会使抑郁和焦虑的内化症状持续存在。然而，对功能失调的思维游荡（MW）——即导致情绪失调的内在导向性思维——及其与内化症状相关的潜在认知机制的研究仍然有限。本研究旨在通过区分思维游荡的意向性和内容，来识别与抑郁和焦虑内化症状相关的功能失调型思维游荡。结果表明，特质反刍和担忧依次介导了无意思维游荡频率（包括模糊的、面向未来的和消极的内容）与内化症状之间的关系。此外，在无意消极思维游荡与内化症状的关系中，发现了单一中介效应和链式中介效应，在链式中介路径中，担忧既可以作为唯一的中介，也可以作为反刍之后的后续中介。本研究为反刍和担忧作为适应不良情绪调节策略的独特作用提供了新的见解，特别是关于功能失调型思维游荡类型及其对抑郁和焦虑内化症状的影响。
