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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
Mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties in generalized anxiety disorder: preliminary evidence for independent
Lizabeth Roemer1, Jonathan K Lee, Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault
1Psychology Department, University of Massachusetts at Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, USA. Lizabeth.Roemer@umb.edu
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 nonclinical and clinical samples. In the first study, among a sample of 395 individuals at an urban commuter campus, self-reports of both emotion regulation difficulties and aspects of mindfulness accounted for unique variance in GAD symptom severity, above and beyond variance shared with depressive and anxious symptoms, as well as variance shared with one another. In the second study, individuals with GAD (n=16) reported significantly lower levels of mindfulness and significantly higher levels of difficulties in emotion regulation than individuals in a nonanxious control group (n=16). Results are discussed in terms of directions for future research and potential implications for treatment development.
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