The Mediating Role of Self-Knowledge and Mindful Attention in the Relationship between Emotion Regulation and Impulsivity in a Military Unit

The aim of this study was to determine the mediating role of self-knowledge and mindful attention in the relationship between emotion regulation and impulsivity among military personnel.

This is an applied research work which was carried out using the descriptive-correlational method. The statistical population (n ₌ 1500) consisted of all the male military personnel of the Tehran Naval Barracks in 2019. The minimum sample size is 200 people selected through the regular random sampling method from Naval Barracks in Tehran. The data collection instruments included the Cohesive Self-Knowledge Scale (Ghorbani et al., 2008), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown & Ryan, 2003), the Garnfsky Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnfsky et al., 2001) and the Bart Impulsivity Scale (Bart et al., 2004). To describe and analyze the raw data and to draw the correlation matrix, SPSS software was used. Also, to determine the conformity of the assumed model with the observed data and to test the research hypothesis, structural equations – path analysis and AMOS software were used. In the present study, based on the measurement level of the variables and hypotheses in question, in the descriptive part, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation as well as frequency distribution tables and graphs were used, and in the inferential part, path analysis based on the number of variables was used.

The findings revealed that, in the final model, all the direct paths are significant at less than 0.01, and the interaction of self-knowledge with regulating emotions has the greatest mediating role in reducing impulsivity.