The Moderating Role of Resilience on Mindfulness, Experiential Avoidance, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms of College Student Veterans: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the moderating effect of resilience on the relationship between mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. A cross-sectional study design was used on a sample of 133 college student military veterans. We found a direct effect of mindfulness on PTSD and a significant mediating effect of experiential avoidance on the relationship between mindfulness and PTSD. Resilience also had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between mindfulness and PTSD. This study provides preliminary evidence on the usefulness of integrating resilience development in mindfulness-based interventions for trauma-related disorders.

Conflict of interest statement

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

This research study involved human participants. All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Office of Research Integrity – Human Subjects, Reference # 1554884) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.