Original scientific paper

EMOTION DYSREGULATION MEDIATES THE RELATION BETWEEN MINDFULNESS AND REJECTION SENSITIVITY

Patrizia Velotti orcid.org/0000-0002-1933-8314 ; Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Carlo Garofalo ; Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Fabiola Bizzi ; Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

Abstract

Background: The role of rejection sensitivity (RS; the tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overreact to implied or
overt interpersonal rejection) in psychopathology has mainly been studied with regard to borderline personality disorder (BPD). In
the present study, we first sought to extend previous evidence of heightened RS in a clinical group with psychiatric disorders other
than BPD, when compared with a community sample. Then, we tested whether emotion dysregulation and mindfulness were
associated with RS in both sample, further hypothesizing that emotion dysregulation would mediate the relation between mindfulness
deficits and RS.
Subjects and methods: We adopted a cross-sectional design involving 191 psychiatric patients and 277 community participants
(total N=468). All participants completed the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and the
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale.
Results: Our hypotheses were supported, with psychiatric patients reporting greater levels of rejection sensitivity and emotion
dysregulation, and lower level of mindfulness. Mindfulness deficits and emotion dysregulation explained a significant amount of
variance in RS, in both samples. Finally, bootstrap analyses revealed that mindfulness deficits played an indirect effect on RS
through the mediating role of emotion dysregulation. In particular, two different patterns emerged. Among psychiatric patients, an
impairment in the ability to assume a non-judgmental stance towards own thoughts and feelings was related to RS through the
mediation of limited access to emotion regulation strategies. Conversely, in the community sample, overall emotion dysregulation
mediated the effect of lack of attention and awareness for present activities and experience on RS.
Conclusions: Longitudinal studies could help in delineating etiological models of RS, and the joint role of deficits in mindfulness
and emotion regulation should inform treatment programs.

Keywords

rejection sensitivity – mindfulness - emotion dysregulation – psychopathology

Hrčak ID:

162466

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/162466

Publication date:

23.9.2015.

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