Emotion Regulation and Psychological Well-being as Contributors Towards Mindfulness Among Under-Graduate Students

Abstract

Emotion regulation is generally described as the ability of an individual not only to manage emotions effectively but also to respond effectively to the emotional experience. It has also been viewed as a crucial aspect for psychological well-being. It is a psychological state which means more than just being free from stress and not having any other psychological disorder reported by the individual. At the same time, students with higher emotion regulation and psychological well-being are expected to be more attentive and able to observe, describe and participate in the present moment, effectively, with non-judgmental awareness, which is in turn defined as mindfulness. Hence, it has been expected that participants with higher emotion regulation and psychological well-being would also report higher levels of mindfulness. Therefore, the present empirical investigation has been conducted with an objective of assessing the level of emotion regulation, psychological well-being and mindfulness among under-graduate students. Additionally, it was also expected that all the said variables would be positively correlated and emotion regulation and psychological well-being would predict mindfulness positively for under-graduate students. For this purpose, ex post facto research design was adopted, and standardized tools pertaining to emotion regulation, psychological well-being and mindfulness were administered on a sample of 104 under-graduate students. The results of correlation statistics revealed that emotional regulation (r = 0.27; p < 0.01) and psychological well-being (r = 0.21; p < 0.01) are the positive and significant correlates of mindfulness. Additionally, statistical outcomes of stepwise multiple regression analysis confirm that emotion regulation and psychological well-being are the significant predictors of mindfulness and contribute collectively towards a 11% variance towards the same.