Background The current study seeks to investigate the mechanisms through which mindfulness is related to mental health in a clinical sample of adults by examining a) whether specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies (rumination, reappraisal, worry, and non-acceptance) mediate associations between mindfulness and depression and anxiety, respectively, and b) whether these emotion regulation strategies operate uniquely or transdiagnostically in relation to depression and anxiety. Methods Participants were 187 adults seeking treatment at a mood and anxiety disorders clinic in Connecticut. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures that included assessments of depression and anxiety (Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire), and emotion regulation (Ruminative Response Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale). Results Simple mediation analyses indicated that rumination and worry significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and anxiety symptoms, while rumination and reappraisal significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Multiple mediation analyses showed that worry significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and anxiety symptoms and rumination and reappraisal significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Conclusion Findings suggest that mindfulness operates through distinct and common mechanisms depending on clinical context.

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Background Mindfulness has been associated with anxiety and depression, but the ways in which specific facets of mindfulness relate to symptoms of anxiety and depression remains unclear. The purpose of the current study was to investigate associations between specific facets of mindfulness (e.g., observing, describing, nonjudging, acting with awareness, and nonreactivity) and dimensions of anxiety and depression symptoms (e.g., anxious arousal, general distress-anxiety, general distress-depression, and anhedonic depression) while controlling for shared variance among variables. Methods Participants were 187 treatment-seeking adults. Mindfulness was measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and symptoms of depression and anxiety were measured using the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire. Results Bivariate correlations showed that all facets of mindfulness were significantly related to all dimensions of anxiety and depression with two exceptions: describing was unrelated to general distress -anxiety, and observing was unrelated to all symptom clusters. Path analysis was used to simultaneously examine associations between mindfulness facets and depression and anxiety symptoms. Significant and marginally significant pathways were retained to construct a more parsimonious model and model fit indices were examined. The parsimonious model indicated that nonreactivity was significantly inversely associated with general distress anxiety symptoms. Describing was significantly inversely associated with anxious arousal, while observing was significantly positively associated with it. Nonjudging and nonreactivity were significantly inversely related to general distress-depression and anhedonic depression symptomatology. Acting with awareness was not significantly associated with any dimensions of anxiety or depression. Conclusions Findings support associations between specific facets of mindfulness and dimensions of anxiety and depression and highlight the potential utility of targeting these specific aspects of mindfulness in interventions for anxiety and mood disorders.

Social anxiety and depression are common mental health problems among adolescents and are frequently comorbid. Primary aims of this study were to (1) elucidate the nature of individual differences in specific emotion regulation deficits among adolescents with symptoms of social anxiety and depression, and (2) determine whether repetitive negative thinking (RNT) functions as a transdiagnostic factor. A diverse sample of adolescents (N = 1065) completed measures assessing emotion regulation and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Results indicated that adolescents with high levels of social anxiety and depression symptoms reported decreased emotional awareness, dysregulated emotion expression, and reduced use of emotion management strategies. The hypothesized structural model in which RNT functions as a transdiagnostic factor exhibited a better fit than an alternative model in which worry and rumination function as separate predictors of symptomatology. Findings implicate emotion regulation deficits and RNT in the developmental psychopathology of youth anxiety and mood disorders.

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Difficulties in the ability to be aware, attentive, and accepting of ongoing experience may play a role in the relationship of BPD features to harmful dysregulated behaviors. Future research should clarify potential reciprocal effects between BPD features and mindfulness with prospective, multioccasion designs.

Data suggest military personnel involved in U.S. military initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning from deployment with elevated rates of mental health diagnoses, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to examine difficulties with emotion regulation as a potential contributory mechanism by which soldiers have poorer psychological outcomes, such as depression, dissociation, alcohol abuse, and interpersonal difficulties. Participants were 44 active-duty male service members who comprised three groups, including those deployed with and without diagnosed PTSD and those prior to deployment. Participants in the PTSD group scored significantly higher on measures of self-reported depression, trauma-related dissociation, alcohol misuse, and social adjustment difficulties than did comparison groups. Importantly, difficulties with emotion regulation were found to partially mediate the relationship between PTSD and depression, poor social adjustment, and trauma-related depersonalization but not alcohol misuse. Emotion-regulation difficulties are important to consider in the relationship between PTSD and additional psychological outcomes in recently deployed personnel. Implications for treatment are briefly discussed.

The study compares parent and child reports of child mental health to determine the relationship between parent-child disagreement and parental psychological and attitudinal factors, and to determine how parent-child disagreement is associated with the use of specialized services. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1268 children aged 6-11 years using the Dominic Interactive and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Psychological distress and negative parental attitudes were associated with greater reporting of mental health problems, leading to greater parent-child agreement on symptom presence, and to parental over-reporting of symptoms. Parent/child agreement was associated with 43.83% of contact with a mental health provider for externalizing and 33.73% for internalizing problems. The contribution of key parental psychological and attitudinal factors in parent-child disagreement on child mental health status may prove helpful in improving the identification of children in need of specialized services.