Longitudinal Evaluation of the Relationship Between Mindfulness, General Distress, Anxiety, and PTSD in a Recently Deployed National Guard Sample

Mindfulness has increasingly been shown to be a resilience-promoting factor against the negative effects of stress and anxiety. While there is considerable literature evidencing that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with decreased stress and anxiety in civilian cross-sectional studies, fewer studies have examined this relationship utilizing longitudinal designs with recently deployed National Guard soldiers. The present study examined the resilience-promoting effects of mindfulness on symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and general distress with members of Aviation (N = 52) and Infantry (N = 146) battalions of the Army National Guard who recently returned from deployment. Each study participant completed measures at two time points (3 and 12 months post-deployment) to examine whether mindfulness predicted symptom reporting over time. Overall, findings suggest that time 1 mindfulness is a significant predictor of time 2 general distress, anxiety, and the hyperarousal symptom cluster, but not time 2 total PTSD. Consistent with previous studies, these findings suggest that mindfulness measures may be useful for identifying soldiers at risk and resilient for post-deployment psychological distress. The implications for different diagnostic frameworks and criteria are considered.