Mindfulness and emotion regulation of Indian working professionals: General self-efficacy as partial mediator

Abstract

Purpose. The current study aims to examine if and how Indian working professionals’ mindfulness is associated with their emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) as general self-efficacy mediates these relationships. This is done by examining (a) the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness through the mediation of general self-efficacy and (b) the relationship between expressive suppression and mindfulness through the mediation of general self-efficacy. Method. Participants were 500 Indian adult working professionals aged 21–36 years (M_age = 28.8 years; 68.4% male; 92.2% urban) who completed self-report measures. Correlation and mediation analyses were performed in line with the objectives. Findings. Findings suggest that the relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation is partially (accounting for some, but not all, of the relationship) explained by general self-efficacy, as mindfulness was found associated with both strategies of emotion regulation: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, and general self-efficacy partially significantly mediated both these relationship pathways. Value of results. Therefore, if organization psychologists pay attention to the impact and contribution of general self-efficacy while implementing mindfulness practice among working professionals or while administering (undertaking) mindfulness-based programs, training techniques, and even interventions for maintaining emotional balance, better work-related psychological outcomes can be expected, thereby elevating the promotion of healthy industrial and organization psychology. These objectives are novel for this sample, and the findings also promote professional collaboration between practitioners and researchers in organizational psychology.