Understanding Emotion Regulatory Effect of Mindfulness: Role of Differentiation and Range of Emotional Experiences

Abstract

The link between mindfulness and better emotion regulation (ER) has been well documented, but the mechanism through which it improves ER is still unclear. It is likely that the emotion regulatory effects of mindfulness might be occurring indirectly through other affective aspects (e.g., range & differentiation of emotional experiences). The said possibility was tested on a sample of 211 adults, using self-report measures of mindfulness, the use of ER strategies (reappraisal & suppression) and range and differentiation of emotional experience. Analyses revealed that mindfulness and its dimensions correlated negatively with the use of suppression and positively with reappraisal as well as range and differentiation of emotional experiences. The hypothesis that mindfulness influences ER indirectly through altering the range and differentiation of emotions is supported by the findings of structural equation modeling. Findings revealed that mindfulness was indirectly linked with enhanced use of reappraisal through improved emotional differentiation and reduced use of suppression through enhancement of both the range and differentiation of emotional experiences. Further, mindfulness was found to have a significant direct effect on suppression but not on reappraisal. These findings imply that mindfulness exerts its emotion regulatory effect indirectly by enhancing the range and differentiation of emotional experiences but it may also have some direct effect on some aspects of ER such as reduced emotional suppression.