Access to autobiographical memory as an emotion regulation strategy and its relation to dispositional mindfulness

Mindfulness research has extensively focused on mechanisms that make it work. Emotional regulation (ER) has been proposed as one of the mechanisms to explain the effects of mindfulness on health. ER is composed of a broad set of strategies, such as the use of autobiographical memory (AM), which refers to the recollection of personally experienced past events to regulate the emotion (i.e., remembering a positive past event in order to calm anxiety). Authors suggest that mindfulness and AM are related. However, few studies exist to explore this relationship that could promote a more adaptive ER. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the mindfulness trait and the use of positive specific memories (as an ER strategy) after sadness induction. The sample was composed of 60 university students with no mindfulness meditation experience. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory Questionnaire (BDI-II), the Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). A sad Mood Induction Task (MIT) was applied to the participants using Virtual Reality (VR) before the AM task. Results showed that the Non-reactivity mindfulness facet was significantly correlated with time needed to access personal positive specific memories in response to positive words (r=–.41; p<.05) and predicted this relationship (β=–.41; p<.05). This study provides data on the relationship between the mindfulness trait and ER, showing that mindfulness (specifically the Non-reactivity facet) is related to more adaptive ER.