Mindfulness and attachment security in romantic relationships: The role of emotion regulation as a mediator

Research suggests that mindfulness is positively related to attachment security in romantic relationships. However, studies on the processes underlying this association are relatively scarce. In this longitudinal study, we investigated the mediating role of emotion dysregulation between mindfulness and attachment insecurity. A total of 333 Chinese university students were recruited for three time points, with a 6-month lag between time points, to complete self-report questionnaires of mindfulness, emotion dysregulation, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Cross-lagged mediation analysis showed that greater mindfulness was indirectly associated with lower attachment anxiety via lower emotion dysregulation, after controlling for age, gender, and autoregressive control variables, indicating emotion dysregulation as a mediator. However, emotion dysregulation did not mediate the longitudinal association between mindfulness and attachment avoidance. The present findings inform researchers of the importance of cultivating mindfulness and emotion regulation to enhance attachment security in romantic relationships.