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Five Facets of Mindfulness and Psychological Health: Evaluating a Psychological Model of the Mechanisms of Mindfulness.

ABSTRACT: There has been an increasing focus on determining the psychological mechanisms underlying the broad effects of mindfulness on psychological health. Mindfulness has been posited to be related to the construct of reperceiving or decentering, defined as a shift in perspective associated with decreased attachment to one's thoughts and emotions. Decentering is proposed to be a meta-mechanism that mobilizes four psychological mechanisms (cognitive flexibility, values clarification, self-regulation, and exposure), which in turn are associated with positive health outcomes. Despite preliminary support for this model, extant studies testing this model have not examined distinct facets of mindfulness. The present study used a multidimensional measure of mindfulness to examine whether this model could account for the associations between ive facets of mindfulness and psychological symptoms (depressive symptoms, stress, anxiety symptoms, alcohol-related problems) in a sample of college students (N = 944). Our findings partially support this model. We found significant double-mediated associations in the expected directions for all outcomes (stress, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms) except alcohol-related problems, and for each of the facets of mindfulness except observing. However, decentering and the specific mechanisms did not fully mediate the associations among mindfulness facets and psychological health outcomes. Experimental and ecological momentary assessment designs are needed to understand the psychological processes that account for the beneficial effects of mindfulness.

SUBMITTER: Brown DB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4617366 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Five Facets of Mindfulness and Psychological Health: Evaluating a Psychological Model of the Mechanisms of Mindfulness.

Brown David B DB Bravo Adrian J AJ Roos Corey R CR Pearson Matthew R MR

Mindfulness 20141028 5

There has been an increasing focus on determining the psychological mechanisms underlying the broad effects of mindfulness on psychological health. Mindfulness has been posited to be related to the construct of reperceiving or decentering, defined as a shift in perspective associated with decreased attachment to one's thoughts and emotions. Decentering is proposed to be a meta-mechanism that mobilizes four psychological mechanisms (cognitive flexibility, values clarification, self-regulation, an ...[more]

PMID: 26504498

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Project description:Restoration skills training (ReST) is a mindfulness-based course that draws on restorative nature experience to facilitate the meditation practice and teach widely applicable adaptation skills. Previous studies comparing ReST to conventional mindfulness training (CMT) showed that ReST has important advantages: it supports beginning meditators in connecting with restorative environmental qualities and in meditating with less effort; it restores their attention regulation capabilities; and it helps them complete the course and establish a regular meditation habit. However, mindfulness theory indicates that effortful training may be necessary to achieve generalized improvements in psychological functioning. Therefore, this study tests whether the less effortful and more acceptable ReST approach is attended by any meaningful disadvantage compared to CMT in terms of its effects on central aspects psychological functioning. We analyze data from four rounds of development of the ReST course, in each of which we compared it to a parallel and formally matched CMT course. Randomly assigned participants (total course starters = 152) provided ratings of dispositional mindfulness, cognitive functioning, and chronic stress before and after the 5-week ReST and CMT courses. Round 4 also included a separately recruited passive control condition. ReST and CMT were attended by similar average improvements in the three outcomes, although the effects on chronic stress were inconsistent. Moderate to large improvements in the three outcomes could also be affirmed in contrasts with the passive controls. Using a reliable change index, we saw that over one third of the ReST and CMT participants enjoyed reliably improved psychological functioning. The risk of experiencing deteriorated functioning was no greater with either ReST or CMT than for passive control group participants. None of the contrasts exceeded our stringent criterion for inferiority of ReST compared with CMT. We conclude that ReST is a promising alternative for otherwise healthy people with stress or concentration problems who would be less likely to complete more effortful CMT. By adapting the meditation practices to draw on restorative setting characteristics, ReST can mitigate the demands otherwise incurred in early stages of mindfulness training without compromising the acquisition of widely applicable mindfulness skills.

Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected mental health, creating an urgent need for convenient and safe interventions to improve well-being. Online mindfulness interventions show promise for improving depression, anxiety, and general well-being.ObjectiveTo assess: 1) the impact of online mindfulness on psychological distress, 2) altruistic efforts, and 3) the quantity, quality, and availability of online mindfulness resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods233 participants (203 U.S.; 20 international; 10 unknown) participated in this prospective, single-arm, non-randomized clinical trial of a single online mindfulness meditation session with pre- and post-surveys.Main outcome measures(a) Mindfulness session helpfulness, online platform effectiveness, and immediate pre- to post-session changes in momentary stress, anxiety, and COVID-19 concern; (b) qualitative themes representing how people are helping others during the pandemic; (c) absolute changes in quantity of mindfulness-oriented web content and free online mindfulness resource availability from May to August 2020.ResultsMost participants felt the online mindfulness session was helpful and the electronic platform effective for practicing mindfulness (89%, 95% CI: [82 to 93%]), with decreased momentary anxiety (76%; 95% CI: [69 to 83%]), stress (80%; [72 to 86%]), and COVID-19 concern (55%; [46 to 63%]), (p < 0.001 for each measure). Participants reported helping others in a variety of ways during the pandemic, including following public health guidelines, conducting acts of service and connection, and helping oneself in hopes of helping others. "Mindfulness + COVID" search results increased by 52% from May to August 2020. Most (73%) Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health member websites offer free online mindfulness resources.ConclusionsVirtual mindfulness is an increasingly accessible intervention available world-wide that may reduce psychological distress during this isolating public health crisis. Kindness and altruism are being demonstrated during the pandemic. The consolidated online mindfulness resources provided may help guide clinicians and patients.

Project description:Mindfulness, a practice of non-judgmental awareness of present experience, has been associated with reduced eating psychopathology and emotion-driven eating. However, it remains unclear whether mindfulness relates to diet quality. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether dispositional mindfulness is associated with diet quality and to explore psychological factors relating dispositional mindfulness to diet quality. Community-dwelling adults (N = 406; Mage = 43.19, SD = 7.26; Mbody mass index [BMI] = 27.08, SD = 5.28; 52% female) completed ratings of dispositional mindfulness, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). Dietary intake was assessed using the Block Food Frequency Questionnaire, from which the 2015 Healthy Eating Index was derived. Analyses were conducted using the "lavaan" package in R with bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals (BootCI). Age, sex, race, education, and BMI were entered as covariates in all models. Higher dispositional mindfulness was associated with higher diet quality (β = 0.11, p = 0.03), and this effect was mediated through lower depressive symptoms (indirect effect β = 0.06, p = 0.02, BootCI = 0.104-1.42, p = 0.03). Dispositional mindfulness was negatively correlated with perceived stress (β = -0.31, p < 0.01) and NA (β = -0.43, p < 0.01), as well as positively correlated with PA (β = -0.26, p < 0.01). However, these factors were unrelated to diet quality. These cross-sectional data provide initial evidence that dispositional mindfulness relates to diet quality among midlife adults, an effect that may be explained in part by less depressive symptomatology. Given that lifestyle behaviors in midlife are leading determinants of risk for cardiovascular disease and neurocognitive impairment in late life, interventions to enhance mindfulness in midlife may mitigate disease risk. Additional research assessing the impact of mindfulness interventions on diet quality are warranted.

Dataset Information

Five Facets of Mindfulness and Psychological Health: Evaluating a Psychological Model of the Mechanisms of Mindfulness.

Publications

Five Facets of Mindfulness and Psychological Health: Evaluating a Psychological Model of the Mechanisms of Mindfulness.

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