The mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between trait mindfulness and posttraumatic stress symptom severity

Mindfulness, particularly nonjudgment and awareness, are associated with posttraumatic stress symptom severity (Vujanovic, Youngwirth, Johnson, & Zvolensky, 2009). However, the mechanism by which mindfulness is related to posttraumatic stress is not as well understood. Emotion regulation is associated with both mindfulness and PTSD (Tull, Barrett, McMillan, &Roemer, 2007; Vujanovic, Bonn-Miller, Bernstein, McKee, & Zvolensky, 2010). Therefore, the present study examined whether difficulties in emotion regulation mediated the relationship between mindfulness and posttraumatic stress symptom severity in a sample of 188 trauma exposed adults. Participants completed questionnaires on trait mindfulness, difficulties in emotion regulation, and posttraumatic stress symptom severity. Higher levels of nonjudgment and awareness were associated with lower levels of both PTSD symptom severity and difficulties in emotion regulation. Mediation analysis revealed overall difficulties in emotion regulation, and specifically lack of access to effective emotion regulation strategies, mediated the relationship between nonjudgment and awareness to PTSD symptom severity. Although correlational, these results provide further insight into one possible mechanism of action by which mindfulness is associated with PTSD symptom severity.