To Turn Inward or Outward? Examining the Reciprocal Relationships Between Mindfulness, Interpersonal Emotion Regulation, and Aggression Over Time.
Research square July 4, 2025 Erika Blair, David Chester
People often rely on others to help manage their emotions, a process called interpersonal emotion regulation (IER), while mindfulness involves turning inward to regulate emotions. A longitudinal study of 469 undergraduates across three waves, each about 20 days apart, examined how these strategies relate to each other and to aggression. Contrary to predictions, individuals who were generally more mindful engaged in less IER over time. However, when participants were more mindful than their own average, they subsequently used more IER. Neither mindfulness nor IER consistently predicted aggressive behavior. The inverse relationship between these effective regulatory approaches raises questions about trade-offs between their costs and benefits.