A Mindfulness Model of Emotion Regulation in Nursing Students: Working Memory Capacity as a Regulatory Mechanism

Abstract

Nursing students often struggle with transitioning from education into clinical practice. These students may be overwhelmed with the emotional demands and high cognitive load resulting from the unpredictable post-graduation/professional work environment. A lack of research exists investigating how nursing students regulate their emotions and what cognitive emotional regulation strategies they use when dealing with the cognitive and emotional demands of nursing school. The integration of mindfulness training into nursing curricula has the potential to facilitate the development of nursing students’ working memory capacity (WMC) and improve emotion regulation (ER) skills. Although a few studies have investigated mindfulness training with nursing students, there is a lack of empirical evidence examining how dispositional mindfulness and WMC influence a nursing student’s ability to regulate their emotions. Research evidence suggests that dispositional mindfulness is linked to ER. However, whether: (a) ER is influenced by dispositional mindfulness; (b) WMC mediates this relationship; and (c) if these factors are different between education levels has not yet been determined in nursing students. This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between mindfulness, WMC, and ER in a pre-licensure nursing student population from a southeastern Georgia university. Two questionnaires and a WMC task were completed by the sample (n = 80). A path model of the relationships between mindfulness, WMC and ER was tested using structural equation modeling. Factor differences between the four education levels were tested using one-way ANOVA. Mindfulness was positively associated with ER (r = 0.1905, p = 0.045) and WMC (r = 0.2977; p = 0.004). The path analyses revealed that there was a direct effect of mindfulness on ER (γ11 = 0.292, p = 0.034) and WMC (γ21 = 4.975, p = 0.004). However, the indirect effect of mindfulness on ER was not statistically significantly mediated by WMC (β = - 0.03, p = 0.236). Furthermore, mindfulness was significantly different between the first semester students having the highest level of mindfulness and the fourth semester students having the lowest level of mindfulness, F(3, 76) = 4.12, p < 0.05. Dispositional mindfulness may influence ER and WMC in nursing students, but the downward trend of mindfulness from first to last semester is concerning. Nurse educators may consider using mindfulness training to enhance mindfulness, WMC and ER.