To Turn Inward or Outward? Examining the Reciprocal Relationships Between Mindfulness, Interpersonal Emotion Regulation, and Aggression Over Time.

Summary

Surprisingly, people who regularly practice mindfulness tend to rely less on others for emotional support. Research examined how turning inward (mindfulness) or outward (interpersonal emotion regulation) relates to each other and aggression over time. While generally more mindful individuals sought less external support, temporary boosts in mindfulness actually led to more seeking help. Neither approach consistently predicted aggressive behavior. This reveals a nuanced relationship between these beneficial emotion management strategies.

Abstract

People frequently turn to others to help regulate their emotions in what is referred to as inter personal emotion regulation (IER). Mindfulness entails an intra personal strategy of turning inward to facilitate emotion regulation. Yet little research has examined the relationships between these distinct regulation strategies and their consequences for aggression. The current study aims to elucidate how dispositional tendencies towards mindfulness and IER interact to predict each other and aggression over time. To do so, a diverse sample of undergraduates ( N = 469) at a Minority Serving Institution completed a three-wave, longitudinal study with approximately 20 days between each wave. Against our predictions, between-participants estimates suggested that more mindful individuals engaged in less IER across time points. Paradoxically, within-participant analyses revealed that when participants were more mindful than usual, they subsequently engaged in more IER. IER and mindfulness did not consistently explain our measures of aggressive behavior. As both IER and mindfulness are effective regulatory approaches with salutary effects, the inverse relationship between the two raises important questions about the trade-offs between the costs and benefits associated with these approaches.

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