Professional caregivers of psychiatric patients are often exposed to circumstances and environments that threaten their mental well-being in the course of carrying out their professional duties. In this study, we examined the mediating role of emotion regulation in the association between mindfulness and mental well-being among professional caregivers of psychiatric patients. Three hundred and seven professional caregivers of psychiatric patients whose ages ranged between 22 and 63 years (mean age = 39.21 years; SD = 10.09 years) participated in the study. They completed measures of mindfulness, emotion regulation and mental well-being in addition to supplying relevant demographic information. Results of mediation analysis showed that expressive suppression dimension of emotion regulation mediated the relationship between mindfulness and mental well-being. This indicates that mindfulness was associated with increased mental well-being via the pathway of reduced expressive suppression. These findings suggest that expressive suppression may represent an effective way to strengthen the link between mindfulness and mental well-being among professional caregivers and ultimately provide a means to improve their well-being.
Keywords: Emotion regulation; caregivers; mediation; mental well-being; mindfulness; psychiatric patients.