Acceptance Is a Better Predictor of Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, and Well-Being Compared to Other Emotional Competences

Various constructs such as emotional competence, emotion regulation, acceptance, distress tolerance, experiential avoidance, decentring, and attention monitoring are part of the same nomological network and a core aspect of mindfulness and acceptance approaches. In the previous studies, these constructs have been associated with mental health, particularly anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as well-being. However, they have rarely been compared to each other to predict their relevance and unique predictive ability. As acceptance seems to be the central and active process in mindfulness and acceptance approaches, we hypothesised that if each of these predictors are independently associated with mental health, acceptance would be the most influential predictor. A nonclinical sample of 321 participants from the general French-speaking population anonymously completed measures of anxiety, depression, well-being, emotional competences, emotion regulation, acceptance, distress tolerance, experiential avoidance, decentring, and attention monitoring. We conducted hierarchical multiple regressions to assess and compare the predictive ability of these constructs. Acceptance was a better predictor for anxiety (B = -.34, p < .001), depression (B = -.36, p < .001), and well-being (B = .40, p < .001), compared to all other factors assessed. Unlike acceptance, experiential avoidance did not significantly predict mental health in models including all predictors. Acceptance was the best predictor of mental health and well-being in our findings, thus further documenting its major role in emotional disorders and well-being. Furthermore, this study suggests the differentiation of acceptance and experiential avoidance as distinct constructs. In addition, mediation models show that attention monitoring and decentring would appear to be intermediate skills for achieving acceptance.