Mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties in generalized anxiety disorder: Preliminary evidence for independent and overlapping contributions
L. Roemer, Jonathan K. Lee, Kristalyn Salters-pedneault, Shannon M. Erisman, S. Orsillo, D. Mennin
The Behavior Therapist November 1, 2008 DOI: 10.1016/j.beth.2008.04.001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Two-sample cross-sectional study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 411 |
| Population | Nonclinical university students (n=395) and adults with GAD or non-anxious controls (n=32) |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key findings | Both emotion regulation difficulties and mindfulness uniquely predicted GAD symptom severity in the nonclinical sample. Clinically diagnosed individuals with GAD reported lower mindfulness and higher emotion regulation difficulties than controls. |
Abstract
Diminished levels of mindfulness (awareness and acceptance/nonjudgment) and difficulties in emotion regulation have both been proposed to play a role in symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); the current studies investigated these relationships in a nonclinical and a clinical sample. In the first study, among a sample of 395 individuals at an urban commuter campus, we found that self reports of both emotion regulation difficulties and aspects of mindfulness accounted for unique variance in GAD symptom severity, above and beyond shared variance with depressive and anxious symptoms, as well as shared variance with one another. In the second study, we found that individuals diagnosed with clinically significant GAD (n = 16) reported significantly lower levels of mindfulness and significantly higher levels of difficulties in emotion regulation than individuals in a non-anxious control group (n = 16). Results are discussed in terms of directions for future research and potential implications for treatment development.