Mindfulness and anxiety among university students: Moderating role of cognitive emotion regulation

University students have to face many challenges including different social and educational settings, these changes can negatively affect their performance and develop symptoms of anxiety. Mindfulness and cognitive emotion regulation can be considered as key factors in getting awareness about one's weakness and ability to improve it. Therefore, the present research aimed to explore the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety among students. Further, moderating role of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation(ER) strategy was investigated in the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety. A convenient sample of 210 students including both male (104) and female (106) age ranged between 18 to 26 years was drawn from various universities. The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ), and Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) were used to measure the variables under study. Correlational analysis indicated a negative relationship of mindfulness with anxiety and adaptive CER strategy whereas anxiety has a positive relationship with maladaptive CER. Furthermore, interactive effect showed moderating role of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in relation with mindfulness and anxiety. Results revealed that maladaptive CER are considered as contributing factors as they lead to higher level of anxiety when combine with low level of mindfulness. Moreover, it was also suggestive fact that less use of adaptive CER strengthens the negative relationship between mindfulness and anxiety leading towards anxiety symptoms. Implications and suggestions have also been discussed.