Inhibition on irrelevant negative information alleviates the mediating role of psychological distress in the association between trait rumination and symptoms of depression and anxiety

Abstract This study aims to examine whether psychological distress mediates the association between rumination and symptoms of depression-anxiety, and whether such a mediating role is moderated by the ability to inhibit irrelevant negative information (a moderated-mediation model). On-line questionnaires comprising the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Negative Affective Priming (NAP) Task as a measure of inhibitory control (IC) on negative information were administered to 181 participants (M = 21.57 years old, 80.1% females). The results of the analyses showed (1) a significant negative association between psychological distress and the performance of inhibitory control on negative information, (2) a partial mediating role of psychological distress in the relationship between rumination and symptoms of depression and anxiety, and (3) that the mediating role was moderated by inhibitory control performance. The stronger the inhibitory control, the weaker a relationship between rumination and psychological distress, which is associated with the reduction in the mediating role of psychological distress on the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The implications of our findings will be discussed by considering the systemic dynamic Model for understanding depression and anxiety.