Psychological distress and life satisfaction in university populations: the role of psychological inflexibility [Distress psicologico e soddisfazione di vita in popolazione universitaria: il ruolo dell’Inflessibilità Psicologica]

Psychological Inflexibility (PI) has emerged as a compelling construct to explain psychological distress (PD). Different processes have been hypothesized to underlie PI, including high experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion, and low committed action. This study explored whether these PI processes significantly contributed to explain PD and life satisfaction in Italian undergraduate students. Participants were 105 undergraduate students with high PD (clinical group) and a control group of 182 students. They completed self-report measures of the PI processes, PD and life satisfaction. The clinical group reported higher levels of experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion, and lower levels of committed action than the control group. Inflexibility processes explained 29% to 49% of the variation across all outcome measures in both groups. Findings support PI processes as general risk factors for a poorer emotional adjustment and life satisfaction in college students.