Incremental Main and Moderating Effects of Mindfulness on the Association Between Trauma and Emotional Distress

Experiencing trauma is associated with several forms of emotional distress. Although emotional distress has long been expressed in terms of categorical diagnoses, recent research has emphasized the utility of dimensional models of distress. An example of this is the tripartite model, which posits three dimensions of emotional distress: general distress (GD), anxious arousal (AA), and anhedonic depression (AD). One factor associated with problems captured in the tripartite model is mindfulness, which has five facets (observe, describe, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reactivity). Research suggests that mindfulness in general is associated with lower levels of emotional distress after experiencing trauma. However, there is less research on how specific facets of mindfulness are associated with specific dimensions of emotional distress or how these facets may affect the association between traumatic experiences and emotional distress.

In this study, we examined the main and moderating effects of mindfulness on the association between traumatic experiences and GD, AA, and AD in a crowdsourced sample of women and men (N = 317) using a Bayesian approach to multiple regression. Results Results show that traumatic experiences had a positive association and mindfulness had a negative association with each dimension of emotional distress. Results further suggest the observe and describe facets moderated the association between traumatic experiences and AA such that observe exacerbated and describe attenuated trauma's effect on AA.

These findings suggest that labeling anxiety in the context of trauma may be more effective in reducing anxiety than simply noticing it.