Relationship between early-life stress and trait mindfulness in adulthood: a correlational study

BACKGROUND: To investigate the relationship between early-life stress (ELS) and the trait mindfulness level in workers. METHOD: This study is quantitative cross-sectional and correlational research with a sample of 929 workers from a Brazilian public university. ELS and mindfulness assessment was performed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-BR (FFMQ-BR), respectively. The data were submitted to correlation tests adopting a significance level of .05 and a multivariate linear regression analysis. RESULTS: 50.0% of the participants obtained a score indicative of ELS exposure in at least one subtype among the five proposed by the CTQ, with emotional neglect predominating (63.0%). The group not exposed to emotional abuse had higher scores in the “describe—positive formulation” and “non-reactivity to inner experience” facets. Those that scored for physical abuse had higher values in “acting with awareness—autopilot”. However, the group exposed to sexual abuse obtained the highest score in the “acting with awareness—autopilot” and “acting with awareness—distraction” facets. The correlation between FFMQ-BR and CTQ overall scores showed a weak correlation with statistical significance. The multiple linear revealed that the facets of mindfulness were significantly associated by at least one type of early stress; however, no significant association was found between CTQ and FFMQ-BR overall results. CONCLUSION: The results showed that emotional regulation might have effectively occurred in this specific population, even with the presence of some childhood trauma.